Blue Lightning
by JaphetSkie
Summary: Xero is ready to meet his friends in Hell, but it seems Fate had more plans in store for him. (first time writing fanfics, don't bash me pls.)
1. CH 1: This Is Definitely Not Hell

**Hey, JaphetSkie here. This is my first crossover fanfic, so constructive criticism is allowed, as I don't have enough experience in writing stories. You better watch or have knowledge about Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos or else you would have a hard time understanding this fanfic. Anyway, have fun reading!**

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos.**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 1: This Is Definitely Not Hell**_

* * *

 _ **Somewhere in the Void…**_

" _Well, I died. What a drag."_

This is the first thought of one man floating in the vast nothingness. His clothes were worn out, merely consisting of pants, combat boots, a shirt and a black coat that saw better days. A scar adorned his old and wrinkled face, and his greying hair reaching his back tied in a ponytail.

This is Xero, the last member of Bolverk Squad, a 4-man special operations unit created by the organization called MBORF. He is the CQB specialist, while his team leader Omega is the ranged weapon expert. Askad is the demolition expert, while Askad's creation, an android named Kary-08 is the most powerful member, having the ability to control energy. With the exception of Kary, they're all cyborgs.

Their last mission together involved destroying a living weapon called XV created by a company named Bio Int. They succeeded in destroying XV, but Askad was killed in the mission, and he along with Omega were betrayed by MBORF.

They escaped and fought against entire armies of soldiers and automatons which lead to the destruction of the entire city they were in. But then, Kary joined the fray. She then killed the Overseer, explained her intentions to the two and expressed her hatred towards humans. As her core recharges when she kills a living being, she is planning to kill everyone so that she could live forever.

With the help of Omicron Squad, Omega's former comrades, and the robotic version of Askad, they fought her off, but her power was simply too much that Omicron Squad and the Robot Askad sacrificed their lives **(not like Robo Askad is alive, LOL)** to help them defeat the deranged android.

Despite their efforts, Omega was killed by Kary. Xero then resolved to fight her to his last breath, but as Kary was about to kill him, the XV-infected Omega intervened, forcing Kary to self-destruct, killing her. Omega somehow managed to regain control of himself and pleaded to Xero to kill him, or else XV will take over Omega again and kill them both. Reluctantly, Xero executed his friend. He thought freedom is within his reach after all he have been through.

He was wrong.

For the rest of his life, Xero remained on the run from the one who pulled the strings the whole time. He then realized that the death of his friends are all orchestrated and thoroughly planned out by someone behind the scenes.

He is an unwanted variable, as he managed to survive when he shouldn't, and he was hunted down ever since. He knew that he doesn't have all the time in the world, and so he left a legacy behind: His student, Enid. He entrusted to her the responsibility of taking down the manipulator behind all of this, just before they went on to his final battle.

" _I'm still worried about her. She will be fighting alone and without my guidance at this point. I really hope she can overcome the challenges ahead of her. "_

He breathed deeply. " _She can put an end to that so-called New World Order. I know she can._ _She is my student, after all."_

He then pondered on what to do next. " _Well, I'm still here, floating. How am I getting out of here? I really want to see my friends again, wherever they are. Kary however,"_ he paused, knowing that he won't be seeing the android anymore, even in the afterlife.

 _"She is synthetic. No matter how human she acted, she still doesn't have a soul. There's no afterlife for someone like her"._

As he kept on in his internal rambling, he did not notice that a faint light is appearing near him, pulling him toward it. He only noticed it when the light went brighter as he was being drawn closer to it. "Looks like this is it, huh? Omega, Askad, I'll be seeing you guys soon."

Oh how wrong he was.

* * *

 **Somewhere in ISverse…**

He opened his eyes, and he was seeing green. Lots of it. _"Great, I woke up in a forest. This place seems familiar though"._ After a few seconds, he realized that this is not just a forest. The trees are tall, very tall that they rival buildings. There is one place in the world that he knew with such trees.

"Am I in California? _Unless Hell have large trees in them, I must be in some National or State Parks somewhere in California_ ". He is not sure if his guess is right, but he is damn sure he is lost. Then he realized something.

"Wait, why is my voice much lighter, and why do I feel like I'm not as weak as before?" Fearing that something bad happened to his appearance, he rushed to the nearby stream. What he saw in the water's reflection shocked him.

His physique somehow reverted back to his teenage years. The scar on his face was gone too, and his hair is no longer gray and was the way it did when he was young. If he were calm enough, he could estimate that his current appearance was when he was 17.

" _What in the hell's going on? Why am I a kid again? How come my scar is gone? What could have done this?"_ His mind is in turmoil, trying to comprehend what or how it happened.

He tried to calm down by breathing deeply. _"Panicking won't do me any good. Whatever happened to me is already done. I got to worry about other matters, like what I'm going to do next, or if I'm actually in Hell or in another universe"._

Truth be told, while he is not much of a religious person, he knows about the concept of an afterlife. He also read about these theories about a person's soul being transferred to another universe once they die which seemed plausible due to evidences. He is not sure what to believe in right now, but he is sure that he's going to Hell if the afterlife truly exists. But the question is, is he really dead?

" _Afterlife and theories aside, I wonder if my armor's still there"_ he hummed to himself. It was supposedly damaged badly, but it wouldn't hurt to try, right? He then proceeded and willed his armor to appear.

Then, like magic, his Cervical Armor appeared, covering his whole body save for some parts of his head and a 6-eyed visor and a scarf covering his face. When he was on the run, he heavily modified his armor as it was heavily damaged after the battle against Kary. He also added some of the components from his Vertebral Armor to it.

By now, it now fly, cloak, and teleport as well aside from the Mach 3 burst and Petrol Silhouettes. Lightweight but strong materials were used to replace the old material his armor was made of, making at least as tough as Omega's, yet as fast and mobile as his older armor.

The deployment seemed off, though. Instead of the usual mechashifting to his person, it just gradually materialized out of blue particles. He didn't give a second thought. As long as he can use his armor, nothing else matters.

" _So it's still there, huh? Logically, I shouldn't have this armor with me at all, because I remember that it was heavily damaged on my last battle. Next up, weapons_ ". He then proceeded to manifest his weapons.

Unlike before, instead of warping the weapons from a place they were stored, the weapons were now within the Digital Storage within his armor. He incorporated the tech in his armor when he found the schematics in a government base that he raided 5 years after the battle against Kary.

Surprisingly, all of his weapon in his inventory are still there, along with a lot of spare ammunition and spare parts that he swore that were not there before. _"Alright, this is weird, but I'm not complaining about this one. But still, these are basically enough to last me in a month-long siege"._

He also noted that it's not just his weapons are in the storage, but also Askad's and Omega's. _"Oookayyy. I'm gonna have to train in my gun skills, then. I've gotten rusty in that field"._ He haven't used guns for nearly a decade. Heck, Enid was even better than him in shooting with guns.

" _But wait. Why are their stuff in here, anyway? Did some entity decided to give me a starter pack of sorts?"_ No one answered him.

* * *

 _ **1 Hour Later…**_

After an hour of checking in his gear and inventory, Xero finally went on to scout around. Using Mach 3 Burst and his thrusters, he managed to get to the highest point of the forest in speeds of Mach 4, reaching towards his destination within mere seconds.

While he flew around, he quickly activated his stealth cloak as he noticed a few hikers in the designated pathways in the forest. "Hmmm... they're not in any form of suffering, so I'm sure I'm not in Hell" he muttered.

Reaching his destination, he decided to take a look in his surroundings and lo and behold, the Golden Gate Bridge can be seen from his location. The view is quite good, but he ignored it as his mind in in overdrive.

" _Me waking up here in California, me turning into a teen again, Askad and Omega's weapons that showed up in my inventory for some reason, and a crap-ton of ammo and parts for my current weapons that weren't there before, and my armor's weird deployment method. It is already clear that I'm not dead. Obviously someone revived me and just dumped me here in a bloody forest, but why would they do that?"_

It absolutely bogged his mind that it's starting to irritate him more than Kary messing with his gaming computer when Bolverk Squad was still there.

" _Arrghh… I'm gonna need answers but where?!"_ He suddenly perked up and looked at the city, _"Of course! I can simply go there and gather some info. I might get something if I did "_.

He then went down the tree he was standing on, dematerialized his armor, and took a look onto himself. He's still wearing his worn-out clothes, but he noticed that the rips and tears are gone, and they look as good as new. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he had enough of questioning the weird things that happened today. He walked towards the designated pathways without anyone noticing him and went on to his next destination - San Francisco City.

* * *

 **And that's the first chapter! And about 1.7K words according to MS Word. Some people who knows XM might say that Xero is a bit out of character, as he is very hotheaded and would curse out a lot, but considering that he died an old man and was a teacher and the behavior he displayed in the end of XM 4-3, he surely would be somewhat calm, patient, wise, etc., and his habit of swearing surely diminished. About his appearance, refer to the cover art in XM 4-3 (Xero is the blue one in the middle). Anyway, remember that constructive criticism is allowed, and no insults or flames please. This is JaphetSkie, Signing out.**


	2. CH 2: A New World

**Heya, JaphetSkie here! Chapter 2 is finally out. This will be the first chapter with a fight scene. About the previous chapter, someone who is knowledgeable about Xionic Madness will note that Xero can use the Mach 3 Burst even without the Aeroblade. I made it so because it stumps me a bit as to why did he have to equip it just to dash at high speeds. Aside from that, he will also have some other armor functions and some skills that will be shown in the future chapters. Once again, constructive criticism is welcome. Enjoy.**

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **(Bold, Underlined and in Parenthesis)**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 2: A New World**_

* * *

Settling down in San Francisco was a cinch for Xero, as he hijacked a car when he exited in the park to get to the city. As he entered the city, he abandoned the vehicle and proceeded to steal money from rich-looking people without them even noticing. He felt bad for stealing, but he had no choice as he only had his armor, weapons and clothes in his back. If he needs to blend in within society, he got to have enough money to do so.

Another issue is that he is basically a ghost and he had no records, so going to school or finding a job is out of the question until he can forge the necessary documents, something he is quite good at. With the money he stole, he bought some clothes and other necessities, rented in a small apartment, and went to an internet café to gather information.

He could've simply remotely hacked the computer and accessed the Internet, but he have to lay low for now. Who knows, maybe someone is watching his every move right now. He then went on and browsed the Internet "the old-fashioned way", and that is where things got interesting for him.

 _ **45 Minutes Later…**_

" _IS, huh? Basically the most powerful weapon to ever exist, yet only women can pilot them."_ He remarked as he read an article about the Infinite Stratos. _"Whatever Shinonono's intentions are in building these sexist machines, it's clear that gender roles took a step back to the Dark Ages, but in reverse."_ He grimaced in that thought.

Shaking his head, he continued on in his research. He read about the White Knight Incident next. _"2,341 missiles, 207 advanced fighter jets, 7 cruisers, 5 carriers, and 8 satellites downed in one incident? Now that is impressive, considering that no one died, even"_.

It was no sarcasm, he is actually impressed by the feats done by the White Knight. He could probably do the same, but he would be very much hard-pressed doing so.

He saw that he only have 5 minutes left in the computer, and so he decided to download all relevant data and articles he could find to his Neural Computer so he can review them later. He looked at the window at his left. It's nearly sunset, so he better hurry.

* * *

Finished in his research, Xero went on to go back to his newly-rented apartment. He made sure he kept a low profile, wearing radio shades and his scarf, and going through the alleyways instead of the main streets with the help of the GPS satellite that he hacked.

As he walked however, he was then surrounded by 4 men. They were obviously thugs considering that some of them have hidden weapons in their person that didn't went unnoticed to Xero's cybernetically-enhanced eyes, and one of them is holding an aluminum bat.

A tall man that seems to be their leader shows up. He loudly said, "Hey kid, you're in our territory. You know that you gotta pay a fee to pass through here, don'tcha?"

He replied, acting like he's just a mere passerby, "Ah, no sir. I just moved in from the neighborhood."

The man chuckled, "Now you know, so hand over your money you dipshit, or you're getting it!" Xero, keeping up the façade of an average civilian, replied in faux fear,

"I don't have money sir, you gotta believe me!" The man simply shook his head and nodded towards his men.

"Get him, boys" his men went to grab a seemingly harmless teenager.

Big mistake.

As one thug wearing a beanie went to grab his arm, Xero suddenly grabbed the offending limb and twisted it in an unnatural angle. The man screamed in pain, but the young man paid no mind and proceeded to grab the thug's head and smash him to the wall, knocking him unconscious.

The second thug with a bat roared in anger and charged towards him, but Xero simply sidestepped, took the bat, and knocked out the thug with a well-placed hit behind his head.

The third thug took out a switchblade and tried to sneak in behind him, but he quickly turned around and threw the bat at the thug's hand, forcing him to let go of the blade and cradle his injured hand while grunting in pain, as his wrist was dislocated from the excessive force behind the cyborg's throw. He looked at the cold eyes of the prey turned predator, then he felt pain in his left temple and knew no more.

Seeing that his enemy was down from that kick, Xero turned to face their leader, who is now backing away from him in fear. The leader somehow managed to regain his wits and pulled out a gun, a Beretta 92FS by the looks of it. He screamed, "No, stay back! I have a gun!"

Xero simply snorted. _"It's useless. I already analyzed all of you and saw through the way you fight. You're all pathetic, to be honest."_

When Omega was controlled by XV, Xero was infected by the virus the living weapon had. The rate of infection was significantly lesser than Omega's, but he somehow gained a boon from the infection: He can analyze and copy anyone's skills and abilities, fighting style and patterns included.

The skill was so damn powerful that an enemy might mistaken it as mind-reading.

" _You're gonna try shoot me at the head from this range and since you suck at shooting moving targets, I'll just duck and strafe at random directions while I come at you until you lose those 15, maybe 16 rounds in your gun"_ , he thought while he executed his plan.

True to his word, the leader did try to shoot him in the head, but Xero simply ducked and rushed at him while he weaved through the bullets. The leader frantically kept shooting at him, but his target was too fast for him to get a clear shot. He pulled the trigger once more, and he was horrified to hear a click instead of a bang.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed as he threw the pistol as a last resort. Xero merely grabbed the gun and crushed it with his bare hands. The man was backed in the wall with terror in his eyes and begged, "No! Please, let me go! I won't mess with you anymore! I'm not telling anyone, I promise!" All of his pleas went unsaid, as Xero gave him a roundhouse kick, taking him down.

He surveyed his surroundings. There were a few splotches of blood in the wall and ground, 4 unconscious men that he is 100% sure that will not wake up anytime soon, a switchblade, aluminum bat, and a crumpled gun.

He tied up the thugs with a rope he found near the trash can, and he took the bat and gun, using a wet towel from a nearby clothesline to wipe his fingerprints off them before disposing them in a trash bin just nearby from where he is. He quickly left the scene afterwards, as he knew someone heard the gunshots and will likely call the cops.

 _ **30 Minutes Later…**_

He finally reached his apartment. It was rather spartan in design, with at least 3 rooms in it. T

he living room had a small sofa, a coffee table and a TV, his kitchen is rather nondescript but fully functional, and the bathroom's warm and cold water isn't functioning pretty well. He could've rented for a better apartment unit, but he doesn't have a job right now, so he have to save what money he have, which is basically around $5,000.

"Alright, next on the agenda is to forge documents, spin up a believable life story, then get a job. But first," He hit the couch. "I need some shut-eye."

* * *

 **Aaannnd Done! That's Chapter 2 with at least 1.3K words in. Yeah, I know Xero's new ability looks like it's OP, but its only flaw is that he have to be fast enough to be able to counter or react to the enemy attacks. Next Chapter will go on a year after the events of Chapter 2. Stay tuned for Chapter 3! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	3. CH 3: A New Calling

**Heeeyyy everyone! That makes it 3 chapters within days! Hopefully I won't get writer's block so I can keep going 'till I finish this fic. Then there's the fact that Christmas vacation will be over for me in a couple of days after New Year… Anyway, I updated Chapter 2 so the timeskip is abou a year unlike the 6 months like I said before. I'll also update Xero's age and make him around 17 instead of 15 when he was sent to ISverse. Have fun reading!**

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos.**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3: A New Calling**_

* * *

 _ **Turin, Italy**_

" _Looking back, it's been a year since I ended up here."_

Unseen and cloaked in the dark of the night, a figure clad in black and blue armor sneaked in a rather nondescript and seemingly abandoned warehouse.

His mission? Put a stop in an illegal operation conducted in said warehouse. If the intel he received from one of his informants is correct, the warehouse is used as a staging point in an illegal arms trade that spanned all over Europe, North Africa, and Middle East.

His informant had a rough count of at least around 50 to 100 men guarding the warehouse, both in and out.

Despite the conspicuous number of armed personnel walking around the place, the location of the warehouse is quite far enough from any urban settlements, added with the fact that the place was declared abandoned made it a perfect place to do clandestine operations into without anyone messing around with them.

At least, until now.

The armored being held out his hand, and a bow came to being. It is metallic and colored a dark shade of blue, with its limbs being curved blades and its bowstring somehow missing, making it appear more of a twin-bladed sword rather than a proper bow.

Despite the bowstring being absent, he pulled the nonexistent string as if it was there. A bowstring and arrow made of energy appeared out of mid-air, crackling and poised to strike, with the arrow aimed to an unsuspecting guard.

He released the arrow and struck home. In one hit, the man was reduced to ashes. Another one joined him. Then another. They were being picked off one-by-one, yet the goons inside the compound did not hear a commotion outside, and so they carried on to their jobs.

" _Statistically, more men resorted to the life of crime ever since that woman invented the IS… Shinonono could've fixed that if female dominance wasn't her goal, but she did jack shit for about a decade."_

That is actually true. Ever since the debut of IS, more men began to lose their rights and their jobs in favor for the "more superior" gender. Families were broken, crime rate increased as more men joined criminal groups out of desperation, and the status quo of the opposite genders went the other way around.

One more yellow streak flew through the starry sky, and the last patrolling guard fell down in a heap. He proceeded to activate his armor's stealth function and teleported towards the warehouse, instantly covering a distance of 100 meters before boosting towards the nearby window while manifesting 2 trench knives.

These are no ordinary knives though, as the blades can be shot and will explode upon detonation, hence their name, "Boomknives".

As he was a second away from entering the warehouse, he uttered, "Alright. Heaven or Hell, let's do this", before crashing through the window, surprising the men indoor as they fumbled for their guns and went on to defend the place.

They didn't stand a chance.

* * *

" _I can already picture it on the news. News Flash: a warehouse that was confirmed to be housing an illegal arms dealing operation was sighted to be burning by some concerned citizens. Evidences and autopsy reports from the investigation conducted by the police concluded that it was the handiwork of the world's #2 Most Wanted, the so-called 'Blue Lightning', which was likely the cause of the fire. No survivors were found."_

This is what was on the mind of Xero, our protagonist of the story, as he flew at the night sky four times the speed of sound at low altitudes with his stealth cloak on. His objective is completed and he's about to go back to his apartment in Stuttgart, Germany that he rented just this week.

He then remembered, it has been a year ever since he got in this world parallel to his.

As he stealthily entered his apartment, he willed his armor to disappear and lay down the bed. _"I can still remember the time I made that decision."_

* * *

 _ **8 Months Ago, In San Francisco…**_

Xero sighed for the hundredth time. He forged his documents, made up a story of his childhood about his parents being British but they died in a car accident somewhere in Mississippi, and managed to find a job. However…

"Hello sir, welcome to Koloeg's Diner. How may I help you?" Yup. He's a _waiter._ He, Xero, was working in a _diner_. He's supposed to be fighting bad guys out there, not inquiring orders and serving food, damn it! _"Maybe I should've reconsidered my decision."_

It was around 9 PM, so his tort-err… shift is over. He said goodbye to the manager and quickly left the small diner and walked home. He dove to the couch the moment he entered his apartment and he then began to reconsider his options and the decisions he made.

"Okay, so have a job that sucked but pays me good money every month. But I don't think I should be doing this forever." He was an assassin that was cybernetically augmented, for crying out loud! Killing and fighting are the only things that he knew for his whole life as a cyborg.

An army-killing machine, reduced to being a waiter. Omega's gonna be laughing his arse off in the afterlife if he sees this.

"What in the bloody hell am I thinking? That I could finally have a normal life? I'm such a fool." He ranted. Civilian life is not for someone like him, whose life is full of nothing but cold-blooded murder.

"I'm just wasting my time here, time that I could've used to wipe out scums of society and- wait a minute…"

That's it! The current society had so many problems right now, but this world's governments barely did anything to mitigate these issues. Seriously, this world might be in a relative peace right now, but it surely is in a proverbial shitstorm right now all thanks to a bloody-damned sexist invention.

If they won't do something about it, he will. And to hell with their laws, it's not like he followed them at all.

* * *

 _ **Now, In Stuttgart, Germany…**_

"Well, this may actually be my calling, the reason why I was sent here. To help change this world whether they like it or not, and I regret nothing about it."

He started his career in America first, targeting criminal organizations and corrupt politicians, with his deeds at first thought to be committed by either sophisticated hitmen or his victims' rivals. He eventually started to spread his area of operations, establishing a spy network worldwide and gaining connections with other underground vigilantes.

His operations went on without a hitch at first, but one footage about 6 months ago caught him slaughtering an entire base of about 473 well-armed and trained terrorists in Syria within seconds.

The U.N found out about him, and considering that he wore his armor during his missions, it was mistaken as an IS. To make things worse, they also found out that he is of the male gender thanks to the footage, freaking them out further because "an unruly man can use an IS" **(HA!)**. The UN then put him in the World's Most Wanted list on the grounds of "Violation of the Alaska Treaty" **(another HA!)** , just second to Tabane Shinonono, and they gave him an alias as his identity was not yet known.

Blue Lightning, as he always left the crime scene as quick as he struck, leaving none alive.

He snorted at the thought. _"Idiots. They just want me for my tech because they ruled out that I'm not affiliated with any country."_ Aside from the countries worldwide, many big-time companies are also looking for him, as his skills and "IS" is often said to be about equal to the White Knight IS.

They were also starting to give a big reward for those who could catch him, dead or alive. The UN wouldn't let up too, as they also have a reward worth 2 Billion Dollars for anyone that manages to catch him alive.

Many attempts were made against him, but considering that he is always on the move, they weren't even able to catch up with him, with the exception of IS pilots, of course.

He encountered and fought a few IS pilots in some occasions and frankly, he was sorely disappointed. They can't even hold a candle to the White Knight's combat prowess. Hell, MBORF's soldiers and robots did much better. So much for an ultimate weapon.

His train of thought was interrupted by the buzzing in his right pocket. It was his communication device that he uses to talk to his informants worldwide.

It is very encrypted and uses a very powerful quantum transmitter that directly links it to other comms devices, making any attempts of intercepting the communications impossible in conventional ways. "Alright. Let's see what's this about."

Looking at the interface, it seems that it was his informant in Japan trying to contact him. Answering the call, he simply said "What'cha got for me now, bruv?"

"Heard Phantom Task is making their move. IS Academy is likely gonna be hit by them." A distorted voice replied. He frowned at what his informant said.

Phantom Task. As far as he knew, the organization has been around for at least 50 years, but he had little to no knowledge to their true intentions. He had a run-in with some of their operatives every now and then, and sometimes he would attack their bases all around the globe. Generally, he and Phantom task were not in good terms.

"Anything else?" he asked. "Yeah, either Ichika Orimura or the IS in there might be their target. Just be careful, 'cause it's the IS Academy we're talking about. Best bet is that you blend in and get a job there. It's too risky, but It's the only way you can monitor the place and take action if shit hits the fan"

That doesn't seem so good. Infiltrating the IS Academy is gonna be a bad idea, but It's not like there's any other options. The whole place is in an island that could be accessed through a monorail. Considering that he can't be a student there, his only way in is to be accepted as a staff member there.

He could be a guard or janitor. Hell, even a chef will do, as long as he gets in.

"Okay, thanks for the suggestion. Keep up the good work." He hung up. _"I got a bad feeling about this."_

* * *

 **AAANNND CUT! That concludes Chapter 3 with 1.7K words! The bow Xero used is called Light Arrow, just search it in Google for more info. By the way, Xero's gonna be entering the IS Academy around summer vacation before the school year starts at least. Sadly, I won't be writing a new chapter for more than a week or two as I have some cramming to do. But while Chapter 4 ain't done yet, anyone want to ship Xero with someone in ISverse? If no, say "no" in the comments. If yes, just comment who you want to pair him with. And no harems please. Ya'll got one week for that. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	4. CH 4: The Security Guy of IS Academy

**Japhetskie here, and I bring you Chapter 4! So far, I'll be posting every week as much as I can, because classes have already started once more after the Christmas Vacation here in Philippines. Without further ado, enjoy.**

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 4: The Security Guy of IS Academy**_

* * *

IS Academy. It is a multinational school created after the signing of the Alaska Treaty for the sole purpose of teaching students there on how to pilot an IS.

Despite being an international facility, Japan built and maintained it alone without support from other countries, for reasons that the nationality of the creator of IS is Japanese, which singled them out as the party responsible for the White Knight Incident and were tasked on the construction and maintenance of IS Academy without the support of other countries as a _punishment_.

Considering that the IS were piloted by women, it was an all-girls school, with the personnel being mostly female. So the chances of Xero making it there as a staff member are slim.

Fortunately, he have connections to someone in the Japanese Government. He was recommended and got in the academy as a dayshift security officer, which is perfect for this mission of his.

Next week will mark the start of the classes this year. As he is walking through the hallways, he distinctly remembered his job interview to get here.

* * *

 _ **1 Month Ago…**_

"So Strasbourg-san, you have the recommendation of the Minister of Defense of the Japanese Government. May I ask you how?" asked Juuzou Kutsuwagi, the principal of IS Academy as he read Xero's resume and the recommendation from the minister.

Xero _honestly_ replied in fluent Japanese, "Well, I've actually done some work for the Minister and he owes me a few favors. He just told me to ask him if I need anything, that's all."

That was actually true. He did some jobs for the Minister of Defense, even saving his life in an assassination attempt not known by the public. So yes, the man did owe him a favor. Lots of it.

"Okay, but why do you want to work at IS Academy? Someone of your age should be at college, not a full-time worker." the principal asked.

"Well, I've been living in the streets ever since my parents died, so I wasn't able to finish my schooling. I never even entered high school, but I pulled through and got educated though experience and from reading books in public libraries. I do know those won't be enough to get me a good job, but I'm doing what I can."

The principal was deep in thought, _"So he's one of those types of people, the ones that worked their way from the bottom. He would get outright rejected, recommendation or none, if this were like any other schools out there, considering that he wasn't able to finish schooling. But since there's proof that he's quite good, I see no harm in accepting him in."_

He finally spoke,"You know, I normally wouldn't accept you as you never had a formal education, but considering that you were recommended by someone from the government, that's saying that you have what it takes. So," The man held out his hand and finally said, "Congratulations, Xero Strasbourg. Welcome to IS Academy."

Xero smiled and shook the older man's hand. "Thank you, sir. I won't let you down." But before he went off, he asked the principal, "Anyway sir, can I bring some weapons of mine here in the academy? I feel that I must bring them with me because I've been hearing rumors about some terrorist group stealing IS units, and I suspect they might hit this place too if they can do the same to other countries."

"Weapons of yours?" the principal furrowed his brows, having heard of every words the teen uttered. _"They must be experimental anti-IS weaponry of sorts if he is requesting them be brought here. He might use them to endanger the students, but he is asking permission to bring those weapons, so he certainly have no intentions doing so."_

Making up his mind, the principal replied, "I'll have Orimura-san decide for that." Xero simply nodded and said "Alright sir. I'll be on my way then." Before leaving.

No one noticed the blue-haired cyborg smirk. "All's going well as planned." He muttered. "Unto the next phase, then."

* * *

 _ **Now…**_

Walking in the hallway in a security uniform, Xero proceeded to go towards the security office. It was rather a sufficient area, with holographic screens showing live footages through CCTV cameras set up all over the academy. There's also a locker where some of his work stuff like clothes, extra stationeries, and other miscellaneous things are stored.

Besides the locker, there's also a steel cabinet where a few of his weapons are stored. While his weapons made some of the personnel suspicious (especially a certain former Mondo Grosso champion), he assured them that they were patented and were not violating any law. So far he is using the following weapons that he never used as Blue Lightning, but the ones who made the inspection nearly mistaken them as IS-Grade weapons. Regardless, he was given a go-ahead to bring the following weapons:

 **Joy Colt** – A twin-barreled revolver that shoots twelve .50 rounds. It shoots 2 rounds at once.

A **riot shield** used by MBORF Spartan units that can shrug off rocket blasts.

 **Watcher** – A pump-action sniper rifle that shoots Armor-Piercing Plasma rounds. Can shift to a compact scope form.

 **All Purpose Swords (APS)** – Single-edged swords made by MBORF that have retractable blades, making storage more convenient.

 **Ballistica** – Triple-barreled SMGs that fire 9 compressed rounds in a pull of a trigger; has 270 rounds and can shift to a gauntlet form that can destroy a building in a full-powered punch.

 **Armadillo** – A bayoneted missile launcher that fires 10 shots/minute with a 2 km range. It can double as a shield, and its bayonet can Overcharge and penetrate armor and shields.

 **Bloody Doll** – A syringe gun that can create voice-activated projectiles out of the user's blood and neurons; has 8 levels of power. Repeated use however can reduce user's IQ.

The office can only be accessed through a blast door that could only be opened through various scanners, namely though handprint, optical scanning, and a passcode.

It is a perfect place where he can secretly watch over anything fishy without much problems. No one would give much thought about a mere dayshift security guy except when there's an incident.

He sat in his rather comfortable chair and decided to do some monitoring over the staff members. He got a job to do.

* * *

 _ **1 Week Later…**_

Ichika Orimura was a bit nervous. Scratch that, he IS nervous!

He's going to an all-girl's school! While any man would probably be jumping for joy at the prospect of being surrounded with girls for an entire year, the main problem lies to the fact that he is the ONLY male student there. Sure, there might be some male staff members here, but they're quite few that you could count them on your fingers.

Then there's also the fact that his big sister Chifuyu is here, a teacher no less. This will be the first time he sees her after so many years, so he have every rights to be nervous as hell.

He was too engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice a certain security officer until he bumped onto him, catching the boy's attention. Ichika took a good look at the person and he was a bit surprised that it was a boy slightly older than him. Strangely, the blue-haired guy was wearing a security uniform, a clear sign that he was working here as a staff member.

" _He's a security guy here? But he's around our age!"_ was in the Ichika's thoughts as he was staring at the officer. Clearing his throat, the security officer snapped Ichika out of his stupor.

"It's rude to stare, you know." He started. Ichika blushed, realizing his mistake. "Oh! Um… S-Sorry. It's just strange that someone so young would already have a job." The blue-haired guy just chuckled and replied, "Yeah, I get that a lot." Ichika then asked, "Um, anyway, what's your name, mister…"

"Xero Strasbourg. Just call me Xero, though." The student nodded, "okay Xero-san. It's nice meeting you. I'm-"

"Ichika Orimura. It's on the news, bruv." Xero interrupted.

Sheepish, he simply replied, "Oh, right. The news. Anyway, I-"

"Will be running late if we keep up in this conversation." Xero interrupted him once more. Realizing that, Ichika got frantic and went off "Oh crap, I'll be late! Anyway, see you later, Xero-san!"

"Yeah later, Ichika" he called out. _"So that's the first male IS pilot. He seems like a good kid."_ Xero remarked.

" _Huh, he seems nice. I guess things aren't as bad as it looks here. I guess my time here will go on just fine."_ Ichika positively thought to himself.

* * *

" _Man, things are more hectic in this school than I thought, crazy too. This MIGHT be harder than I thought."_ Was in the mind of the first male IS pilot.

Why did he consider the school as hectic and crazy? Let's make a list:

\- Most of the students there are too driven by hormones and would worship his sister that it's disturbing.

\- There's that racist British Representative Candidate with a Holier-Than-Thou attitude that challenged him to a duel that will happen in a week.

\- Houki, his childhood friend, is his roommate. Did his sister arranged for that or it's just plain coincidence?

\- He have to keep up with the other students that were already good and knowledgeable with the IS. He really shouldn't have thrown the reference book.

\- Almost all students _like_ him for some reason. Out of so many men in the world, and they want him. Wow, just wow.

" _I need some fresh air. Gotta clear my head off of these things."_ He told himself as he finds it hard to sleep due to his worries. It's already 12:30 in midnight, but he decided to walk outside the dorm for a few minutes to calm himself down. Not one of the staff members seemed to be around, so he'll be fine. Maybe.

He was passing by the Academy's training dojo when he heard some sounds coming from the inside of the training dojo. Curious, he decided to take a peek to look who's there. To his surprise, it was Xero, the security officer. And he was training with twin bokkens, striking at dummies with extreme grace and precision.

" _He's quite good, it's like he's just dancing. And accurate, too. He's been hitting places that are either sites for armor gaps or where vital places are._

He was peering to the door too much that he tripped and flung the door wide open, making a noise that alerted Xero that made him throw a bokken at the intruder.

"OW!" he fell as he was hit in the head by the bokken. Xero recognized Ichika and went on to help the boy.

"Ah shite, it's just you Ichika." He held a hand and helped him up, which Ichika accepted. "Sorry for that, by the way."

Ichika waved his hands, "no no no, it's fine. I'm the one intruding, so it's on me." Xero hummed in approval and asked, "alright then, but why are you still awake at this hour?"

"Ah, well…" Ichika scratched the back of his head, "I find it hard to sleep, so I went for a walk." Seeing such cases before, Xero replied, "Something troubles your mind?"

"Well, yeah." The younger boy replied. "It's just the first week, yet so much has happened already." Xero smirked at that.

"That's IS Academy for you." Ichika nodded, agreeing to the statement. "Anyway, you mind telling me about it?" the cyborg continued. Ichika sighed and decided to spill his guts. Maybe he'll feel better after this, or Xero will hopefully give him some advice.

"Uhhh… first, I'm kinda uncomfortable being surrounded by girls for nearly the whole day." He started. Xero raised an eyebrow at that. He's uncomfortable? Any man would probably have a shit-eating grin on their face if they hear that they'll be in an all-girls school.

"And it was the first time I meet my sister and childhood friend after years of not seeing them." Xero internally snorted at that, knowing the reason behind that thanks to his information network.

" _That's because your sister is a military instructor in Germany for some years before she entered this academy as a teacher."_ Shaking that thought off of his head, Xero listened further.

"Then there's also that Cecilia Alcott is challenging me to a duel." Now that made him remember. He heard from his fellow personnel about Orimura having a duel with some British chick that is a Representative Candidate. If he were a normal person, he would probably put his bet on his fellow Brit, but he knew the girl's behavior, so he'd rather side with Ichika in this one.

He then decided to give him some tips. "Ichika, if you want to win against Alcott, I could give you some advices for it." He began. The boy perked up at that.

"Really?! You'll help me? Thanks Xero-san!" the security officer just waved him off, trying to hide his amusement at the boy's eagerness.

"Nah, it's fine. Anyway, Alcott's IS specializes in ranged combat. It uses a sniper rifle, 2 missile pods, and some drones for support. When I looked at her fights, she's very vulnerable if you can get close enough, and she tend to stay still when she uses the drones."

He then continued, "if your IS by chance have a ranged weapon, use it as much as possible when she uses her drones, and try to get close to her if you're using a melee weapon. She's screwed if you manage to do it. Your only problem would be how to dodge her sniper fire, missiles, and drones."

Taking the advice at heart, Ichika thanked him and bid goodbye, "Thank you for the tips Xero-san. I'll make sure to beat her!" the older boy chuckled as Ichika went back to the dorm. "You better be!"

* * *

 **Aaaannnd Cut! Sorry if it's a bit late, I got Writer's Block when finishing the chapter, but I managed to pull through. Anyway, that makes it 2.3 K words! Xero's last name isn't really Strasbourg. It's just a cover. Hell, Xionico never gave Bolverk Squad's real names. Moving on, I'll try to post a new chapter every week or two as I said before. This is JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	5. CH 5: White vs Blue

**Yo, JaphetSkie here, and this is chapter 5 of Blue Lightning! It's gonna be Ichika vs. Cecilia in this one. For spoilers though, the Byakushiki's got some new weps and a few upgrades thanks to a certain cyborg ninja. Without further ado, have fun reading.**

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos.**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5: White vs. Blue**_

* * *

 _ **At the IS Academy Hangar…**_

A certain IS pilot is fidgeting in both anticipation and nervousness. But why? Because it's his first bout using an IS. He haven't even used his supposed personal unit! So he technically will have a harder time dealing with someone like Alcott, who have been used to her IS for quite some time now.

"This is gonna be a hard fight. I'm gonna have to rely on my wits, Xero-san's advice, and my week-long training to even have a chance to beat Cecilia." Ichika said to himself.

Well, said training consisted of combined reflex training and Kendo sessions with Houki, so it should be fine, right? Except for the fact that he doesn't have much experience in piloting IS, a personal unit even that he'll be using, which is gonna be a big disadvantage of his in this fight. Speaking of personal unit, it was supposed to be delivered to the academy today, but what's taking so long?

His musing were interrupted by a certain ninja cyborg. "Yo, Ichika." The mentioned boy quickly turned his head at the speaker. Recognizing the person, he just said, "Oh, It's just you, Xero-san."

Realizing something, the boy asked, "Wait, aren't you supposed to be in your office?" the security officer merely replied, "Nah, I got the CCTV system linked to my phone here" showing various live footages in his smartphone that he took from his satchel.

"Oh, okay. But still, what are you doing here?" Ichika then saw Xero smirk and fish out something from the satchel, which turned out to be a bracelet. The weird design is a dead giveaway as to what it is.

"It's your personal IS. I'm personally handing it over to you, 'cause I had a hand in the design on some of its weapons and electronics." That caught him off-guard. "Wait, YOU helped in designing it?!"

"It had a name, and it's Byakushiki." Ichika whistled at that. "That's a nice name. Anything important that I should know?"

"For starters, it was supposedly a close-combat type, but since I came in, I made some changes that it's now an all-rounder. Its main weapon, Yukihira Type 2, took up all expansion slots. I simply added some additional expansion slots on the unit, change a few kinks in the system like the power issues and the hardware, then boom. It's now got 3 additional weapons! And you can store them at the Digital Storage that I added. Hope you know how to use guns and handheld cannons, though."

" _Well, Shinonono fixed the defect and added the Fold-Out Armor and the Yukihira Type 2. I did the final touches with permission of the Japanese Government. And those new weapons are actually just nerfed copies of the real ones I have. I merely reconfigured them to be IS-compatible just some days ago."_ Xero thought to himself. Ichika however…

" _Wait, did he just mean to say that my unit's got A FREAKING HANDHELD CANNON?!"_ Needing a confirmation to his bewilderment, he decided to inquire Xero about it.

"Uhm, can you please give me a general overview to those weapons?" Xero replied, "Sure, why not."

He started to make a brief explanation. "First, there's the Blue Shark, which is a sword that you can shoot the blade out of. The blade dissolves to energy once it hits something and will regenerate back to the sword. Then there's Executer, which is a 900-round machine gun that can shoot up to 2000 rounds per minute. It's quite powerful, but it guzzles its ammo quick, so you gotta make the bullets count when using it, and there's also a bayonet on the handle. Finally, there's the Arctic Empress, which is a Cryo Cannon. It basically fires SHI rounds and-"

"Wait, SHI rounds?" Ichika interrupted, having never heard of that specific term before. "Superheated Ice. That's all you should know for now, bruv." Ichika only nodded at that. He's in a hurry after all.

"Anyway, as I said it fires SHI rounds, and it can definitely kill an unshielded person 'cause it instantly freezes anything down to at least -300 degrees Celsius. It won't encase you, it will freeze you, organs and all. There's also a special function that lets you do a melee attack and make an ice shockwave with it." Ichika can't help but cringe at the sheer power of the weapon.

"I know what you're thinking, and I suggest that you better not use it when Alcott's shields are low. I haven't tried the integrity of an IS's Absolute Defense function with it." The boy nodded in agreement and took the IS in Closed Form and wore it to his wrist. "I'll keep that in mind, Xero-san."

"Oh, and Yukihira had a One-Off Ability that bypasses shields, but it takes up lots of energy that your own shield were used to power it up. It doesn't eat much energy as much as it did before thanks to my own modifications, but you better not use the One-Off Ability if your shields are low." Xero added to Ichika, who listened attentively to the cyborg's advice.

As Ichika was proceeding towards the launch pad, Xero said to him, "It's not too late to back out, you know. Despite the upgrades, you're not yet used to that unit unlike Alcott does."

Ichika turned to him and merely smiled, "Don't worry Xero-san, I'll make sure I win this!" before calling upon the unit, unveiling Byakushiki in all of its glory before he kept going.

Xero sighed in resignation. "Seems there's no persuading you then. Well kick her ass, then! You better not let the ones who made that down by losing to a chic!" was all he shouted to the pilot before he went on to the observation room.

* * *

 _ **At the Battle Arena…**_

"So you didn't run after all. It's not too late to give up already! You can just apologize to me and I will call off the match." Cecilia called out to Ichika who just entered the arena and slowly getting ticked off at her. He's really tempted to use that Cryo Cannon to shut her up. Screw that, he's shutting her up now! Equipping the Arctic Empress, he dashed towards Cecilia's position, who began to fire her sniper rifle at him in defense. It was all thanks to his reflex training that he managed to dodge most of the sniper rifle shots she fired at him.

Deciding to test his weapons, he opted to fire the Arctic Empress at Cecilia, in her IS's legs to be more specific. Blue beams lanced through the field, with some nearly hitting Alcott's units. Seeing the threat Ichika's weapon can bring, she countered with her own sniper rifle. They flew around and traded fire to one another until one of the SHI rounds caught her when she's in the ground, encasing her unit's legs in ice. The result pretty much left Ichika and all but one of the audiences at the observation room gaping in shock as Cecilia did.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, at the Arena Observation Room…**_

"What the?! Cecilia's shields were reduced by 15% in just one hit!" Maya exclaimed in surprise at the amount of damage the Arctic Empress dealt. Chifuyu however was partly peeved at Xero for creating such overpowered weapon, and partly worried as well due to the nature of the weapon Ichika used, so she decided to confront him about it.

"Mr. Strasbourg, I would like to question why you thought it was a good idea to equip Byakushiki with such a dangerous weapon?" Xero merely shrugged and gave an alibi.

"It's just an experimental weapon, you know. I certainly expected them to be dangerous until I manage to determine how it fares to an IS so I can finalize it." She narrowed her eyes at his statement.

" _And dangerous? HAH! Just wait and see what the REAL ones can do, unlike those nerfed knock-offs I gave him."_ He added to himself.

"It still doesn't give you an excuse to jeopardize my students' safety, do you understand that?" She reprimanded him with a clearly stern expression on her face.

He merely rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Trust me, no one will get hurt. I'm certain of that." She raised an eyebrow and asked, "And pray tell what makes you so sure of that?"

He then smirked and said "Simple. Ichika's not intending to win this fight, but to teach her humility and some manners. Well, at least that and I already informed him about 'em, the weapons."

Dropping the issue, Chifuyu couldn't help but sigh. She then said to him, "Fine, but you better know what you're doing, and you have to release information of your tech as per international laws."

He nodded in agreement and answered, "Don't worry about it. I'll show you guys the schematics later once the fight's finished."

* * *

 _ **Back to the Battle Arena…**_

"Just what's this thing's made of?! I can't move at all!" Cecilia exclaimed as she struggled to break free but to no avail. Meanwhile with Ichika, he took advantage of the situation, storing the Arctic Empress before equipping the Executer and proceeding to open fire at her at short bursts as he goes in to finish her off with the sword.

Unfortunately, he seemed to forget about Cecilia's drones and missile launchers. And they managed to whittle down his shields to half within a minute.

" _Damn! There's no way I can get close with all those drones and missiles attacking me! I have to take them out first."_ Realizing his predicament and devising a solution, he started to strafe around the arena, dodging and shooting Cecilia's missiles and drones as much as he can. However, by the time he managed to shoot down all of the obstacles, he finally saw her breaking free from the ice.

Having a clear shot, Ichika attempted to shoot her with the Executer, only for him to hear a click. "Ah, crapbaskets." Was all he said before he was forced to dodge gunfire from Alcott once again.

"I can't lose here, not to some male like you!" Alcott spat as she continued to shoot at Ichika, who began to resume dodging around as he assessed the situation with slight difficulty.

" _This is bad. Executer's out of ammo, so that leaves Arctic Empress as my only ranged weapon. I'm just gonna need to hit her with it one more time, then finish her off with both Yukihira and Blue Shark. The One-Off Ability of Yukihira sounds risky since my shield's less than half now, but I'm taking the gamble. "_

Taking the initiative, he equipped Arctic Empress for the last time along with Blue Shark and went in for the kill. An idea lingered in his mind, though. _"Xero-san said that this have a melee function, and that Blue Shark's blade can be shot. Why not try that out?"_

As Cecilia desperately try to keep Ichika away from her, she saw him rushing to her, with his Cryo Cannon that's now glowing an eerie blue. _"Oh no. He's too close for comfort. I have to get away!"_

She did try to get back as fast as she can. However, Ichika was much faster. As Ichika charged in towards her, Cecilia used her sniper rifle to shield herself in a last-resort effort.

Only for Ichika to slam the Arctic Empress to her rifle, freezing it and rendering it useless now. "No! It can't be!" She exclaimed in shock at seeing her main weapon disabled. He didn't let up however, as he called upon Blue Shark and shot its blade to her, reducing her shield points much further.

Time for him to use the Yukihira, then. He called back Arctic Empress and Blue Shark, drawing Yukihira this time.

As he began to use the One-Off Ability, Yukihira started to glow a bright blue due to the energy the sword projected. He's going to finish this fight, right here and now.

He raised Yukihira high above his head and swung down. The blade hit home and it was all over. He have won the duel.

* * *

 **AAANNND DONE! God, writing this chapter was quite a brain drain for me. And there's 2K words, too. Anyway, you guys can give me advice in writing fight scenes, 'cause there's going to be quite more of such scenes in the future and that I don't think I'm quite good at writing these, at least not yet. This is JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	6. CH 6: A New Ally

**Hey guys, it's me again! I got sick last weekend, and then suffered asthma because it was cold here last week, so I haven't got much time to write a new chapter. And I updated Chapters 4 and 5 'cause I saw some errors there. Writing fics was much harder than I thought. Goddamn procrastination, sickness and Writer's Block, I could've posted a new Chapter last week if it weren't for them. Anyway, that will be all. Enjoy!**

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6: A New Ally**_

* * *

" _Well life could get much crazier for him."_ Our protagonist Xero snickered behind his smartphone's screen while he eats his lunch at one of the rooftops out of many building of ISA, as he watched a live CCTV footage of Cecilia force-feeding Ichika with her homemade treats, with the latter obviously trying to stomach her ill-prepared creations she fed him so as not to hurt her feelings. He can easily see Houki having a pissed off yet envious expression at the spectacle, and with the other students in the background being envious to the two as well.

"Definitely a harem in the making, heh…"

Which reminds him, there will be a Chinese Representative Candidate about to enter IS Academy in a few days from now. As far as his digging goes, the girl's name is Lingyin Huang. She seemed to have a connection to Ichika in the past, though it is on a personal level. She's also using a personal IS unit that is focused on close-ranged combat. That's the most reliable piece of info he got from his informants so far.

Sometimes, he really need to choose the right people for this job. Some of them tend to make mere unproven assumptions and would tell him those like they're facts.

Like some bits on Ichika's older sister Chifuyu. She was an instructor in Germany for JUST A YEAR, not "some years", before disappearing. His informants got it a _bit_ wrong…

His musings were cut short when his comms device alerted him of an incoming call. He didn't even bother to look at the interface to know the caller. He just answered it and listened.

"Meet me at Tokyo at exactly midnight. Got an hour to talk to you. A minute later and you don't show up, I'll leave." A female voice spoke before hanging up. He absolutely recognized whose voice it belongs.

"So you made up your mind, huh? Best prepare for tonight, then." He said to no one in particular. Then he realized something.

"Ah, bloody hell! I didn't ask EXACTLY where in Tokyo we'll meet!" His old habits when he's still a senile old man were starting to catch up on him.

* * *

 _ **Tokyo, at 11:59 PM**_

Xero was flying above the Tokyo skyline with his Cervical Armor's Stealth function on, with his visor's advanced scanners looking for the person he was supposed to meet. It now went to the point of him subtly hacking various satellites and using them to help out in his search, but he still got nothing.

" _Damn, she's good at hiding. Well considering that she looks like that famous person she supposedly wanted to kill so badly, she'll keep a low profile."_

That is, until his HUD alerted him that one of the satellites spotted her in a nondescript alley way. Taking the initiative, Xero flew to the direction his HUD have shown where the person of interest is.

As he went back down to the ground, he willed his armor to disappear, disintegrating to blue particles before finally fading away. Despite the lack of lighting in the alley, he can clearly see the feminine figure of the person with the help of his cybernetically-enchanced eyes. He then saw the person walk to him as he slowly went to approach the young woman.

The person started the conversation. "You're just right on time, Xero. At exactly midnight, even."

He then spoke at her, "You sure you're all alone?" She replied, "I made sure no one followed me, so yeah."

Xero absently nodded in approval and asked her, "So you made your decision then, Madoka?"

The girl now identified as Madoka replied, "As hard as it is to let go of my desire for revenge, I can't deny those words you said to me months ago."

* * *

 _ **In a destroyed Phantom Task base, 3 months before Xero infiltrated IS Academy…**_

Utterly curbstomped.

That was the current situation she went through just now. Her IS is critically damaged, she had cuts and bruises all over her body, she had a rib sticking out on her side, her right arm and left leg are probably broken, and her helmet was cracked, partially revealing her face that's bleeding from a head trauma. She really looked like she got put through a blender. Or as if someone pulled off Death By A Thousand Cuts to her, but minus the Death part.

On the other hand, the opponent in front of her suffered little to no damage from the resulting fight. No matter how powerful her IS's weapons are, He's just too damn fast to get hit.

The only damages this…thing got, are nothing but lightly scorched arms. She managed to land a lucky hit, but he just deployed an energy shield at the last second to soften up the immense damage he was supposed to get. Hell, it looked like she just burned off the paint job in his IS instead of doing real damage at all! And the way he fights…

He adapts to her tactics way too fast, it's like he can read her mind when they were fighting.

"So, M, was it? It's already clear that you lost, but why do you still fight?" The figure in blue armor asked her. She wanted to spit at him right now, but she's too wounded to do so.

"I can't lose…not until _she's_ dead…" She weakly replied, with hate dripping in her voice and referring to a certain person. _"Why am I even talking to him? He is an enemy…"_ she berated herself.

The figure shook his head in disappointment and spoke, "Pathetic. Your journey is geared towards nothing but unnecessary revenge."

"And what do you care? You know nothing about me!" She snapped at him, gritting her teeth in pain afterwards due to her injuries.

He cocked his head at her. "True, I don't know much about you. But I ask you this question, once you achieved your goals, once you killed the person you hated so much, what will you do next? What will you do afterwards?"

This suddenly had her thinking. Killing Chifuyu was the only thing that mattered to her that she never gave it much thought. Not once she ever planned for what will happen next, once Chifuyu's dead.

"I-I…I'll…" She stuttered. What does she want to do in the future anyway? Is there even a future for someone like her?

And then she collapsed as her injuries took their toll on her body. She tried to get up, but she's too weak right now to even lift a finger. She saw him kneel at her, then she saw no more.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

M opened her eyes. Her eyes were then suddenly attacked by the bright light, so she was forced to squint a little bit. She eventually reoriented herself and took a good look around.

She seemed to be in an apartment of sorts, with a television in front of her and a dresser on the right. There also seemed to be a study table opposite the door on her left, just by the window.

Checking her injuries, she was quite surprised that her wounds and other injuries were bandaged. But then, she noted that her hands are cuffed. That only means…

" _I'm captured. That's what it is. But if it's information he wants, he won't get it from me."_ Her musings were cut off when she heard the door open.

She carefully observed her captor, and she saw a young man come in. He's quite tall, and his looks were of Western origin, complemented by blue eyes and hair.

" _Must be one of that guy's associates, an assistant, maybe? Someone like the Blue Lightning couldn't possibly work alone."_ She surmised. If that's the case, she could just kill him and escape, but she's too wounded and weak to do so.

She then saw him carry a tray with food, setting it aside her bed. The tray contains a glass of water, a couple pieces of toasted bread, a steak, and a few utensils. One part of her says that the food was drugged, but her rumbling stomach disagreed with her, so she took a whiff to the piece of toast on the tray just to make sure. It sure smelled just fine.

But then she realized she was still handcuffed. The young man seemed to notice this and produced a key to take off her cuffs. With her hands free, she took one bite at the bread, the buttery taste melting on her mouth.

" _Doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with them, so I'll eat 'em, I guess."_ She concluded as she then proceeded to eat in a more normal pace, consuming more of the toast. She then did the same with the steak.

Once finished, she finally heard the blue-haired boy speak, "Had your fill? I can still make more if you want." She froze. That voice, she realized in shock…

" _This guy is the famed Blue Lightning?! I thought this guy's just an associate! And just my age, too…"_ was her flabbergasted thought. As if knowing what she's thinking, the boy rolled his eyes and told her,

"Lemme guess, you're shocked that I'm just a teenager like you, right?" She could only nod at response. He then sighed. "You're a teenaged terrorist operative that won't hesitate to kill a person, you have a walking WMD that is an IS, and you've killed people in cold blood before. And yet, you're shocked at the fact that the Blue Lightning is someone of your age? Give me a break."

She blinked. He had a nice point there. "Huh, guess I never thought that encountering someone like me wouldn't be as rare as I thought." She muttered. He then replied, "Yeah, no shit Sherlock."

He continued, "Anything can happen in this world. The world's #2 Most Wanted being a kid? It ain't impossible, just having a low chance of happening." She silently agreed with him.

"Name's Xero though, almost forgot about that one." She perked up, albeit confused that he would give his name to an enemy like her, no matter how injured they are.

"You got a name? I'm sure as hell your name can't be M." Weighing the risks, she saw no harm in giving him her name. She doesn't officially exist after all. "Madoka. My name is Madoka."

Xero nodded in approval. "Anyway, do you have an answer to my question now?" That put her back to the main topic, as she still doesn't have an appropriate response to him. So she just decided to be truthful and be done with it.

"I… actually don't know." She admitted. With his accumulated knowledge and wisdom, he started "You know, seeing who you resemble and these snippets of info I heard about a top-secret cloning project, I can conclude that the person you wanted to kill so badly is Chifuyu Orimura, am I correct?"

As much as she doesn't want to talk to him, there's something that makes her feel at ease when he's around. That something, is subtly assuring her that he can be trusted. And so, she finally decided to talk.

"Yes" she answered him. He asked again, "Are you willing to talk to me about it?" she kept silent for half a minute. He then sighed in resignation, "Alright then, you can keep it to yourself."

"But still, revenge does not solve everything. I asked you on what will you do once you achieved your revenge, and you got nothing to answer me with. If you keep on onto your revenge, you tend to lose focus on the other things that could've been more important." She kept silent. He then continued, "Besides, there's more ways than one you can take revenge aside from murder. I've been through that once, and it didn't leave any long-term satisfaction. Just plain hollow inside."

She still didn't stir, but he's sure that she heard every word he said, and that's good enough for him. He then stood up.

"Anyway, you can call out if you need something. You can probably walk in 2 days at most." As he is by the door, he heard her speak.

"My allies are looking for me at this point. I don't have that much time." He snarkily replied at her, "Well it's your problem, not mine." Before closing the door.

She could only flip him the bird and mutter, "Such a dick…" But then she remembered, "Where in the world am I, anyway?"

* * *

 _ **Now…**_

"Heh, I remember you freaking out when you found out you're in Germany instead of being in Japan. You should've seen the look on your face!" He snickered at her while she scowled at that particular memory. She had to spin up a rather believable alibi to her _allies_ as to how she got nearly halfway around the world.

"Don't you ever remind me of that ever again, or I'll castrate you." She threatened him. He laughed in response, "Yeah, I'd love to see you try."

He then asked, "Did they fix your IS yet?" She shook her head, "No, but It's almost fixed. You basically destroyed all of the Bits, fried some of the circuits, disabled the weapons, and fucked over some of the leg and arm components. It took a dent to our resources just to fix it." She then asked in return, "Just what kind of IS do you have? You effortlessly beat me despite my IS being high-end."

He had a shit-eating grin on his face. "That's the best part. It's not an IS. It's an advanced power armor designed to further augment my cybernetics." He tried to stop giggling as she had a shell-shocked expression.

" _It's not an IS, but power armor?! And what's this about him having cybernetics?"_ she held her head due to a growing migraine. _"You know what? Forget it, he's just full of surprises."_

She then cleared her throat as they were getting off-topic. "Moving on, I've decided that I think I should leave Phantom now while I still have a chance."

He then got serious at her supposed plan and interjected due to him having other ideas. "No, don't leave Phantom Task. At least not yet."

Confused, she asked him, "Why not? Now's the perfect window of opportunity." He shook his head at her response, "I'm gonna need a mole to give me intel about Phantom Task's future activities, and you fit the bill." She seemed to have deflated a bit. She's getting irritated at her colleagues at Phantom, she'd rather get out than stay a little bit longer.

"Alright, but you don't get to boss me around. This is just a partnership, I'm not your subordinate" He shrugged "Yeah sure, why not. Not planning on that, I assure you"

"Alright, I gotta go." She said as she was about to leave. "I'll contact you if something comes up." He waved at her, "Yeah, stay safe." As she left.

* * *

 _ **Days later, at IS Academy…**_

Xero was bored.

There's nothing interesting going on right now. Well maybe except for the arrival of the new student from China, but it got boring rather quickly.

The one thing he looks forward to right now is the supposed match between Ichika and the new student. And it will happen today.

"Ugh… I wish something awesome happens. The match better be interesting or I'm lopping bloody heads off." He moaned in boredom as he watched the event about to start, through his smartphone.

But as if Karma decided to screw with him, his computer rang in alarm. This made him go from laidback to high alert, as he knows what that means.

Unbeknownst to everyone, he secretly installed a radar system on some of the academy's roofs. They're quite small, just the size of his head, but they have a quite good detection range of a whopping 10 Km each. And the best part is that they can detect ANYTHING, even if the enemy is cloaked, low-flying, or deploying ECM to counter radar detection.

He switched the computer interface from the CCTV to the radar system, and he saw a blip going in towards the academy. The IFF identified it as Unknown IS, and that alone made him rush to the weapons cabinet and grab Armadillo, the Watcher in scoped form, Bloody Doll, the twin APS, and the Ballisticas in gauntlet form, knowing that there weren't any expected arrivals today, with an IS no less. As he frantically ran on the hallways, one of his most reliable informants contacted him.

"Yo, Xero. There's reported sightings of an unknown IS flying around your location. Judging from the direction it's headed, it's going for the academy, just a heads-up."

"Yeah, no shit! It's already here! Thanks, bye!" he hurriedly said at the informant before hanging up the comms device. He's already outside on the academy grounds when he hanged up.

He then wondered, "It's going here, but why and exactly where in the academy it was headed? The only noteworthy stuff going on is… Oh no." he turned his head to the battle arena.

"FUCK! The arena!" He exclaimed as he ran off to the battle arena's direction. Ichika's likely the target.

Seeing that he might not make it in time, he then contacted Chifuyu, as he's sure she's there.

He barked at the smartphone as soon as she picked up, "CHIFUYU, IT'S XERO! CALL OFF THE MATCH NOW, WE GOT AN INTRUDER AT THE ACADEMY!"

* * *

 **AAANNND DONE WITH 2.9K WORDS! Sorry for not updating for a week. I also forgot to mention that I've been working on the framework for my second fanfic. Chapter 7's gonna be another fight scene. Gonna be a challenge for me, but I'll try my best. This is JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	7. CH 7: INTRUDER ALERT!

**HEEEEYYYY, JAPHETSKIE HEEEERRRRE! This is Chapter 7! Fucking finally, we get to see Xero fight against an IS! I hope you like it. That'll be all. ENJOY!**

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

Thoughts - _"Italicized with quote"_

Speech - "normal text with quote"

Timeskips, Flashbacks, or Locations – _**Bold & Italicized **_

Author's Notes – **Bold and Underlined**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7: INTRUDER ALERT!**_

* * *

 _ **At the Arena's Observation Room…**_

What's Chifuyu doing here? Obviously, it's to make sure the match goes well and without a hitch. Unfortunately, she did a bad job at it this time.

As the match is proceeding as usual, her phone rang. She raised an eyebrow when she saw the name of her caller. She knew it's Xero, as she named him in her contacts as "Suspicious Brat".

She decided to humor him, considering that the boy could just go to her and talk to her directly. She answered the call.

"Xero-san? Why are you-" She was then assaulted by Xero's shouts over the phone.

"CHIFUYU, IT'S XERO! CALL OFF THE MATCH NOW, WE GOT AN INTRUDER AT THE ACADEMY!" She then tensed in alert, but still cautious as she can't be sure if he's pulling a prank or not. He's still a kid, after all.

She then asked him, "What you mean, there's an intruder? Would you mind giving me the det-" He interrupted her again.

"WE GOT NO TIME FOR THAT! CANCEL THE MATCH AND GET EVERYONE ON HIGH ALERT NOW, DAMNIT!" His voice seemed urgent, but she still doesn't buy it though, due to one tiny detail.

"How do you even know that there's an intr-" This time it's not Xero who interrupted, but rather something that crashed into the arena. Right where Ichika and Lingyin were.

The smoke cleared, revealing a rather large and intimidating IS. It is 2 meters tall, having a bulky frame and a gold, white, and black color scheme, and in its arms are built-in cannons that seems to be capable of firing energy attacks of sorts.

" _You've got to be kidding me…How in the hell does he even know that there's an intruder that went here?"_ was the thought that circulated on her head. Wasting no time, she gave Maya an order.

"Get everyone on high alert, now! Evacuate the audiences and get the staff members here as quick as they can!" Maya nodded and proceeded to do as she's told. However, as she was about to carry out her orders, she took a glance at the arena.

Maya's eyes widened at who she saw, "Look! Is that Xero-kun over there?" True to her words, Xero is there, armed and ready to fight against an IS.

Chifuyu, fearing for his life, exclaimed "What is he doing?! He can't fight against an IS, it's impossible! He'll die out there!" seeing that the call's still up, she shouted at him over the phone.

"Xero, what do you think you're doing?!" She asked, which was harshly answered by him saying "Doing my job, that's what!" before he hung up.

She cursed, "Damnit… Maya, can you hurry it up? They'll need some help." The green-haired woman responded, "I'm trying! They said they'll be here in a few minutes!"

"They better make it here quick." Chifuyu said.

* * *

 _ **At the Arena…**_

As Xero took a cold and analytical gaze at the intruder, he noticed something that isn't right at the intruder as it fought Ichika and Lingyin.

" _I can't analyze its abilities or combat skills, and its movements are a bit off, which means…bloody hell, that thing's automated?! Who does that to an IS!?"_

He then analyzed the other two individuals fighting it. _"Ichika mostly use his melee weapons but would periodically wield the guns I gave him. That girl, Lingyin, she uses twin shoulder cannons that shoots compressed space. She's also got twin swords that can be jointed in their hilts. They're gonna need ranged support."_ Concluding his tactics, he took out Watcher in rifle form.

Taking a clear shot, he fired, the plasma round hitting the automaton. He fired again, then again, pumping the rifle per shot to vent out the heat from the plasma. He folded the rifle back to its scope form and stored it, brandishing the Armadillo this time.

The two definitely noticed him after shooting the IS. And it's quite obvious that they're surprised. He ignored them and shouted, "What're you idiots looking at? Get in there!" But Ichika tried to object. "But Xero-san, you can't just go against an-"

"Just shut the fuck up and focus, for Christ's sakes! I'll cover you!" he interrupted. The girl however is not so convinced. "Do you really think you can go against an IS without one? Not like you could pilot an IS, though" she said, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

"…" he didn't answer her as he occupied at keeping an eye at the mech, which somehow remained still. Lingyin sighed, "Alright then. Just don't get yourself killed. Okay, Mr. Security Guy?" before charging.

" _Rule of fighting an automaton: test it first and see how it responds. Can it respond in time against projectiles like rockets? Will it dodge or attempt to shoot it down?"_

As the two continued to fight the intruder, Xero tried firing a rocket to the large mech, but it raised its arm and fired a beam from a built-in cannon in its wrist, shooting down the rocket. The beam continued in his way, making him curse out and roll away in time. "Are you alright, Xero-san?!" Ichika yelled over in concern. Xero nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, I'm okay. Focus on getting its attention."

" _Welp, it can shoot down projectiles, and with particle cannons too. The energy output of those cannons are much stronger that Alcott's rifle, so I gotta be careful. And by the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be adaptive, so its movements and attacks are plain repetitive. I could use that to my advantage."_

Xero then told Ichika and Lingyin a quite shocking order, "You two, attack that thing with the intent to kill. Don't hesitate, try to get that thing down with extreme prejudice."

Lingyin objected at this. "What do you mean, attack with intent to kill? You want us to murder the pilot in it? Like I would do that!" Ichika had the same concerns as she does.

Xero deadpanned, "If you're watchful enough, you'll notice that it's way too repetitive in its movements, and it reacts to attacks faster than what any human could. It's obviously unmanned, idiot."

"E-eh?! That thing's unmanned?! Who does that to an IS!?" Xero shrugged, "Join the club, I got the same thoughts as you do."

He then continued, "Try to use teamwork in this one. I'll try to coordinate with you two. I'll signal you, then you get away." Ichika and Lingyin nodded before charging to battle once more.

Xero brandished Armadillo and aimed, waiting for the right timing to shoot. He then found a window of opportunity and used Armadillo's triple-shot mode, firing three rockets at once that simultaneously hit the IS, staggering it.

"NOW!" He yelled at them as Ichika and Lingyin pulled back, with him charging with his Ballistica gauntlets propelling him forward due to the boost power of the gauntlets.

When Omega used it, it couldn't boost him forward only because Omega's armor weighs a ton, but Xero in his unarmored state is obviously light enough to get boosted by the gauntlets, so it's one boon for the cyborg.

As he was approaching the automaton, it tried to punch him in retaliation. The IS's fist is going towards him, just as he wanted it to be.

"Too late to get me, bitch!" He shouted as their fists collided. Red glowing cracks began to appear in the intruder's arm before they violently rippled with energy, making the arm explode.

However, he didn't account for the other arm as it punched him. Even though he managed to block it in time, he was still blasted away from the sheer force of the punch. It was all thanks to his cybernetics that he haven't died yet. But still, it hurt like hell.

"Oww…" He groaned as he tried to get his bearings. He didn't notice the automaton approaching him, or Ichika and Lingyin's attempts to get to him in time. He just got up when the mech punched him to the wall, with its fist keeping him planted there.

He winced in pain as his augmented ribs are starting to strain from the pressure. His eyes then widened when he noticed the particle cannon beginning to charge up. And it was aimed right at his face.

He's gonna die, if he were like any other man. But he's not any man, is he?

"Like hell I'm letting you end me like this…" He growled as he aimed one of the gauntlets at the particle cannon, and the other one at the machine's head. He then proceeded to unload all 540 rounds to the enemy IS, still keeping on shooting at it even when it already let go of him when its head and remaining arm were ripped apart from the sheer firepower. He then took out Bloody Doll and stabbed himself with it, drawing blood and neurons from him.

"Search and Destroy, Level 8" he intoned as the device recognized his command, creating homing projectiles from the extracted blood and neurons in the highest level possible.

Omega used Bloody Doll to Level 6 when the squad needed to deal with an experimental weapon that became an amalgamation of electronics and biological matter that looked more like something Stephen King or R.L. Stine would write. He could've killed it at Level 5, but he wouldn't take chances. No kill like overkill, after all.

However, Xero's making an exception to this thing. As the floating red projectiles zipped towards the automaton, his Neural Computer informed him that the information stored within the IS was successfully decoded and copied. _"Fucking finally, I thought I'll have to destroy this thing without getting anything from it."_

Ever since he entered the arena, he instructed his Neural Computer to remotely hack the IS and extract all data it could get. He have to know who sent it, even though he had a hunch as to who did.

The IS tried to dodge the incoming projectiles, but he instructed the Neural Computer to shut down its actuators and boosters, paralyzing it in place. The blood-neuron projectiles hit the IS, deeply penetrating the armor and damaging the servos and electronics within it.

And it doesn't stop there as the embedded projectiles exploded to red spikes, ultimately dealing irreparable damage and finally destroying the IS for good.

As he stared at the pile of scrap metal at satisfaction, the instructors arrived with their IS. He shouted at them, "The hell took you so long!? The thing's downed now, and you arrived at the Worst. Time. Ever."

They stared at him. He had cuts and bruises everywhere, all of which are not as alarming as some shrapnel embedded in his left leg and his abdomen. They are quite small, fortunately. About the size of a memory stick, at most.

Maya rushed to him in concern. "Xero-kun, you need medical attention!" he waved her off. "Nah, it's fine, I'll live" he said before lighting a cigarette and smoking with it afterwards.

Chifuyu frowned at him. "Xero-san, you need to have your wounds fixed. And stop smoking, it's prohibited within school grounds."

He rolled his eyes and shot back, "Shut the fuck up and let me enjoy this for once."

Before he walked past them as if his wounds are nothing. He continued as he left, "And I got a medkit at the office! I'll patch up and get these pieces off me when I get there!"

They really wanted to object to his refusal, but he already left for his office. _"Gotta contact Madoka to check if Phantom Task got something to do with this."_ He thought to himself as he walked the hallway.

* * *

 _ **At Xero's office…**_

"Hey Madoka. It's me, Xero."

"Xero, why are you calling me now?"

"An unmanned IS attacked the academy. Know something about it?"

"I don't. I would know if there's a planned attack."

"So none of you guys did it?"

"I would've told you earlier if it did."

"Right, right."

"Anyway, was my brother involved?"

"Yup. He's fine, though. Don't worry. I'm the one that got injured."

"Are you alright?"

"You know a few cuts, bruises, and shrapnels won't stop me. You worried about Ichika?"

"I'm not worried about him. The ramifications would be disastrous if he's dead is all."

"Yeeaahhh, right… "

"Fine. I'm worried. But only because I wanna fight him in the future. And Chifuyu-nee, too."

"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that."

"…"

"Alright. Thanks for your time."

"Yeah. Bye. Be careful."

He hung up. "Well, shit. I guess I gotta check the data I extracted."

He then used his Neural Computer to check the general overview of the extracted data. There's about a whopping 12 Terabytes worth of data needed to be analyzed.

" _This is gonna take long. Gotta patch up my wounds first, analysis goes later."_

* * *

 **DONE! With 2.1 K words, no less! That's some shit I did there. Anyway, check out my second fanfic, Armored Core: Ouroboros. It's a crossover between Muv-Luv Alternative and, well, Armored Core. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	8. CH 8: A Not So Big Reveal

**HEY GUYS! THANK YOU BECAUSE WE REACHED A 1K MILESTONE! Now you're thinking: "This guy's happy that he got a thousand views in his fic?" That's because there's not much people I know of that liked Infinite Stratos or Xionic Madness, and it's been two months since I started to write this fic. Once again, thank you for the views! Enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own Infinite Stratos or Xionic Madness.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8: A Not So Big Reveal**_

* * *

 _ **At Xero's Office…**_

Xero cursed in frustration as he analyzed the data he managed to extract from the unmanned IS. He's been doing it nonstop since yesterday when the incident happened, and his desk is cluttered with various papers that may or may not be related to his data analysis.

"Damn, whoever designed that IS must be crazy! Who in their right mind would send an unmanned IS to collect data, WITHOUT even considering the possibility of accidentally harming civilians? It doesn't have any safeguards for that kind of situation at all! Just a pre-programmed order to fight at the arena for the sake of data collection…"

He rubbed his baggy eyes then stretched, his bones giving a satisfying pop. He then checked the clock. It's been minutes since the end of his shift.

"Well, time to go." Was all he said as he organized the papers at the desk before putting some of them in his satchel. The remaining papers that weren't that important were either shredded or stored in his cabinet, then he left.

He was walking on the hallways when he remembered that Chifuyu and Maya were supposedly examining the IS he destroyed. He then wondered, _"Were they able to get anything to that rust bucket? Guess I'll go check them out, then."_

However, as he was going to turn right on the hallway, he was met with the stern face of none other than Chifuyu Orimura.

"Xero-san, I-" he suddenly interrupted her. "Ah, Chifuyu! Just the person I was looking for. You and Maya were analyzing the unmanned IS, right?" Chifuyu glared at him in response.

"How do you even know that the intruding IS was unmanned in the first place?" He suddenly had an _Are You Fucking Serious?_ look at his face. "You've got to be…You failed to meet my expectations about you, Ms. Orimura."

She was beginning to contemplate whether to throw a book at him or not when she heard him continue, "Being a former IS pilot, you should've seen how rigid and repetitive it moved."

He clicked his tongue, "And how it didn't even make any screams of pain when I blew its arm from the shoulder down, or how it didn't flinch when I unloaded half a thousand rounds to it that I almost took the bloody head off and ripped the remaining arm apart."

"It still doesn't explain how you were able to beat an IS, manned or not." She shot back at him.

"Or how you were able to shrug off those punches that should've killed you, or how you were able to dodge beam weapons that fast, or how you knew that there was an intruder that was aiming for the arena."

He sighed. He already expected this. He knew at the start that his plan to infiltrate the academy will greatly risk him being exposed, but he still continued. He knew that once his true identity gets revealed, he will have to be on the run again like he once did.

But what did he care? As long as scums like Phantom Task goes down, he'd be willing to risk everything, even his own safety.

He'd been on the run for decades from a faction bearing technology and weapons far more advanced from what this world could offer. This is nothing compared to what the New World Order throws at him.

The army of Vorpal Soldiers and robot clones of himself that were sent against him 40 years ago gave him a much harder challenge than all of the IS in this world could.

Might as well get the skeleton out of his closet. In the end, it ends up with him being exposed by someone else, or that he reveals himself. The chances of his identity remaining a secret have been low at the start.

He then spoke to Chifuyu, "You want to know? Fine, I'll tell you everything. But at least, after I'm finished with the inquiry and analysis of the IS I destroyed. I just need to get more info at the IS before coming to a conclusion." Satisfied with his answer, Chifuyu nodded.

" _Well not everything, actually. I'm only telling what she needs to know."_ He added to himself.

"Alright then, follow me. I was going to one of the labs where Maya was when I got to you." Chifuyu said as they walked the hallways. She then asked him, "Why do you even want the analysis about the IS?" in which he replied, "To let me get a clue as to who sent that thing."

* * *

 _ **Later, at one of the laboratories…**_

"Xero-kun, are you sure you're okay now? You know you didn't leave the arena unscathed after fighting that IS." Maya asked Xero in concern, which had Chifuyu thinking.

" _It's just yesterday when the incident happened, and I swear he got a cut at his right cheek, but there's nothing. The bruises at his arms are gone too. Just what are you, Xero?"_

"Nah, I'm good. Anyway, Did you get anything about the IS?" Maya replied, "Well yes, we did actually find something intruiging." Before she showed him the screen.

She started, "First thing, it uses jet boosters instead of wings that all IS units use. Quite strange, but we theorize that the boosters were placed so that the unit can do faster maneuvers."

Xero replied to her, "Yeah, noticed that. Anything else?" She shook her head, "We got nothing else since you heavily damaged it with those blood projectile-things."

He quickly apologized and then asked, "Uhm, since it's an IS, would you kindly tell me about the core? There's got to be something in it that will tell us who sent it." Maya nodded in response.

"We were able to analyze it since it luckily remained intact. Now, while the design is strange enough, what is actually troubling is that the core is unique." He raised an eyebrow, "And by unique, you mean…"

"Yes, it is not one of the 467 IS cores created by Tabane Shinonono." Maya said, confirming his thoughts. Xero's mind went to overdrive at that point.

" _I've been keeping track of most IS cores, but so far, there were no attempts to replicate the process of creating of an IS core, which means…"_

"Shinonono sent that thing. That's the most logical answer right now, since she's the only one who can make an IS core." That leaved them shocked at the revelation.

"But why would she do that?" Chifuyu questioned to no one in particular.

Xero shrugged, "Beats me. You're her friend, aren't you? You should've figured that one out." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"How do you even know that she's my friend? You know what? Just spill everything you know. Right here, right now." Xero then looked at the two and sighed.

"Alright. Feel free to tell the principal about me if you want. Hell, tell the Sarashikis as well if you feel like it, but no one else, ok?" He said before he turned to Chifuyu, "I said I'll tell you everything once I'm done here. Here it is."

Summoning his Aeroblade in front of them, he then asked, "Recognize this?"

Chifuyu's eyes widened, as she recognized the weapon Xero have from various footages she watched.

"You're the-"

"Blue Lightning? Yeah, I am him." Xero said as he dropped the metaphorical bomb to the two.

And it hit them so hard that their mouths are gaping open.

He waved at their faces after desummoning his Aeroblade, "Hey, hey, hey! Flies will come in!" which snapped them out of their shock and tried to get his hands off of their faces.

Chifuyu then glared at him. Again.

"So you're the vigilante that killed countless terrorists, corrupt officials, and powerful criminal groups. I knew there's something suspicious about you."

She then threatened him, "What are your intentions with the academy? Answer me or I swear you won't get out of this academy in one piece!" His face held a serious expression and answered.

"To begin with, ever since Shinonono introduced the IS, the society's status quo went down to shit. Families were broken, and gender equality went from _A-okay_ to _Abso-Bloody-Lutely Fucked Up_."

The two cringed at his statement, due to it being a harsh truth.

"Crime rate and terrorist attacks worldwide have increased because more and more men joined criminal groups and terrorist cells out of desperation, all because society favors the "more superior gender" nowadays, not to mention that the "Amazon Mentality" have taken over in many of the world's governments." He scoffed.

"Is that why you've decided to become a vigilante? To take matters to your own hands, because everything's no longer the way they were?" Chfuyu questioned him. "Yeah." He answered.

He then continued, "I started my career for more than a year ago at US. I hit mafia groups, large gangs, and even corrupt officials. Yet no one knew I'm behind all of 'em killings."

"I eventually expanded my operations worldwide. Quickly established an information network, earned some favors and connections at dark and high places alike, and I moved on from hitting local groups to big-time underground organizations. Everything went smooth until a footage caught me when I wiped out a terrorist cell that got their hands on chemical weapons. Nerve gases, to be exact."

"Many thought that the power armor I'm using is an IS, but-" Maya interrupted him at that point.

"Hold on, hold on. You're saying that you're not using an IS, but power armor?" She asked him in bewilderment. He deadpanned at her, "Did it look like an IS to you?"

"W-well no, but since you can beat IS users with it, I guess it have to be one." She replied. He shook his head in disappointment.

"Please, just because the White Knight can destroy an entire army means that all IS could do the same. It's not on the weapon, but on the wielder that decides victory." Chifuyu nodded in agreement to that.

"Now, where was I? As I was saying, many thought that my armor is an IS since it's quite advanced enough to go against one. I became the world's #2 Most Wanted because A: They fear me for what I can do. B: The greedy ones want my tech for themselves. And C: The men-haters in UN and various governments think of me as a threat."

Losing her patience, Chifuyu angrily snapped at him, "What does all this you've said have to do with you being in IS Academy?" He held his finger and shushed her.

"I'm already getting there. So, you guys heard of Phantom Task, yes?" They both nodded.

"Well, one of my most reliable informants told me that Phantom's already preparing to hit IS Academy, probably after summer vacation. Ichika is likely one of their targets, since he's the only male IS pilot." He explained.

Perplexed, Maya asked him, "But if they were expected to attack after vacation, why were you here much earlier?"

"So that I can prepare this academy and make sure it gets ready. I gave Ichika's IS some upgrades to help him in case Phantom actually goes after him. And I already set up a radar system in here, which is the reason why I managed to detect the intruding IS over there." He answered, pointing at the ruined IS at the table.

Chifuyu sighed in exasperation, "Do you have any more surprises around here?" which was replied with "Yeah, I was actually planning to add Anti-IS ECM emitters around here to screw with their electronics."

Her eyebrow twitched. "Next time you install something here in the academy, you tell me about it first, or else…" She let the threat hang in.

He nodded in understanding. "Sure, why not."

"Well, any questions?" No one answered him for a full minute, each being deep down in their own thoughts. "No? Well okay, then. Since I told you everything, I'm going back to my apartment now."

But before he walked, He remembered something he badly wanted to ask, "Umm, Chifuyu? Is Madoka really a clone or not?"

She suddenly went still. Thankfully, Maya is a bit far away as she was busy typing in the computer, so she haven't heard what he said. "How did you know about her?"

He answered, "Just some rumors I got, and the fact that she's my mole within Phantom after I managed to change her mind from keeping on in her revenge against you."

Even though she tried to look as stoic as possible, her eyes held regret. Xero knew he crossed a line in that one.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"Just…Next time you see her, tell her I'm sorry for leaving her behind." She said to him.

Xero shook his head, "No can do, lady. You want to apologize? Tell her that yourself." Before he left.

* * *

 **AND THAT'S 2.1 K WORDS! OWO… Now I realize that it's much easier for me to write a fight scene than a long-winded conversation. Took me 3 days just to finish this, unlike fight scenes where I can do in just one night. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	9. CH 9: An Agreement

**Help me guys, Writer's Block is attacking me again! Anyway, enjoy chapter 9!**

 _ **I don't own Xionic Madness or Infinite Stratos**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 9: An Agreement**_

* * *

 _ **At the Principal's Office…**_

" _Well, shit. They did tell the principal and the Sarashikis."_ Was in Xero's thoughts as he saw the Chifuyu, the principal, and the Student Council president Tatenashi Sarashiki when he opened the door and entered the room.

Just a few minutes ago, he was in his office doing his job as usual, but then the PA announced that the he was being called to the principal's office, he knew at that moment that the two have finally spilled the beans as he expected.

He respectfully greeted everyone and sat down. "So," he started. "Since you already know who I am, are you gonna snitch me to the governments, to the UN?"

The principal shook his head. "No, we won't do such thing. I already knew at the start that there's something about you, but I ignored it because deep down, I have a feeling that you're a good person. You wouldn't help Orimura-san and Huang-san earlier if you are up to no good."

"Uh-huh, so that's it then, I get away scott-free just like that? But there's a catch, isn't it?" He assumed, having already known such things through years of experience.

Seeing that it's her cue, Chifuyu cleared her throat and spoke, "Xero, everyone here in the room had a discussion and we've decided that you get some freedom to do your thing here in the academy, given that you agree to our terms."

"Okay, fire away." He replied, wanting to get it over with.

"First, there won't be any secrets between you and us. Any info you'll get with regards to the safety of the academy and its students, you'll share it with us. If you are going to do something like installing any additional security systems here or if you're going somewhere that's related to your mission, inform us about it."

She continued, "And second, you and the Sarashikis will cooperate with each other, seeing that you both have the same goals of taking down Phantom Task."

"Well, that doesn't seem so bad." He concluded. "Anything else?"

Tatenashi stood up. "Xero-kun, you wouldn't mind if you spar with me, would you?"

He shook his head, "I can't. Not today at least. " He then asked her, "Why do you want to spar with me, anyway?"

She confidently answered, "Because I can tell in the footages about you that you're not going actually going all-out, so I want to know how strong you really are, up-close and personal."

He's beginning to feel sorry for her. _"Oh, so you want to see me go all-out? Your funeral kid, your funeral."_

He then said, "Fine. You want a spar? You'll get it." He turned to the principal, "Sir, can you please have one of the arenas vacant in the weekend?"

"That can be settled." The principal replied. Xero then stood up, "If that'll be all, I'll go back to work now." And seeing that no one had anything else to say, he left the room.

* * *

 _ **Back at Xero's Office…**_

As he was working, Xero got a notification from the other staff that a male IS pilot from France and another female candidate from Germany are entering the academy a few days from now. As for the male pilot…

" _Charles Dunois? Is he related to the CEO of Dunois Industries? Something's fishy in here."_ Seeing that he got nothing about the person of interest, he took out his comms device and called one of his contacts: a well-established and successful information broker at Europe that was known at the underground world as "Oculus".

A few seconds later, Oculus picked up. "Who's this?" He introduced himself. "It's me, Xero. You said that you owe me for saving your business, remember?"

"Ah, yes. I did say that. So what is it that you want to know from 'lil old me?" the broker asked with mirth. "Charles Dunois. Dig up every info you can find about him. He's a quite suspicious lot."

Oculus answered him, "The second male IS pilot? Sure, why not. I'll give you everything you need by tomorrow." Xero then thanked him before hanging up.

He then switched his attention to the German Representative Candidate.

" _Laura Bodewig? Hold the phone, I think I've seen that name somewhere…"_ He thought as he began to search at the digital files he had saved in his Neural Computer as he remembered that he infiltrated a military base at Germany some months ago.

" _Let's see…Bodewig, Bodewig, Bodewig…ah, there it is!"_ He then proceeded to look at the file. According to the report, the girl was part of Germany's supersoldier program. Amongst her peers however, she was considered a failure due to a mishap in one of the experiments done to her.

Her left eye was replaced with a cybernetic one with a Hyper-sensor. However, the eye malfunctioned, which led to her deterioration of combat skills. It was only because of Chifuyu, who was an instructor there for a time, that she managed to become a proficient soldier and IS pilot once again.

" _So the girl's connected to Chifuyu then. First a male IS pilot, and now a supersoldier? What's next, a genius weirdo that's obsessed with bunnies?"_

" _You know what? Fuck it. I've already seen too much weird shit for this."_ He resolved as he went back to work.

* * *

 _ **A Few Days later…**_

"Well, there goes the crossdresser." Xero commented as he monitored Charle- no, Charlotte Dunois walk around the academy grounds through the security cameras. As far as he knew, the crossdresser is Ichika's new roommate.

The information Oculus sent him was quite helpful. As it turns out, the supposed second male IS pilot is actually a female corporate spy sent by her asshole of a father that doesn't even care about her.

Why go to such lengths? He'll never know. But he sure as hell knew that she's here to spy Ichika and gather IS data because Dunois Industry is lagging behind and is becoming desperate to keep up with the rest of the world in 3rd Generation IS research, and Ichika Orimura fit the bill because he is the world's only male IS pilot and that his unit is a 3rd Generation IS.

Like hell Xero's gonna let that happen.

Bodewig isn't here yet so far. She's due to arrive at least the next day or two. But for the meanwhile, he'd better monitor the Charlotte girl to keep her from doing something stupid, though from what he observed so far, the girl is doing just fine.

Xero stood out of his chair. After sitting down for so long, he needed to stretch his legs, and what better way than to take a leisurely stroll around the place?

" _Well I'm gonna talk to Chifuyu about Dunois later anyway, so I guess it won't hurt to walk around."_ He thought as he began to get out of his office and take a stroll around the academy.

And as he walked around the academy, he saw Chifuyu walking nearby carrying a stack of papers and a few books. He then wordlessly approached her.

"Do you need help with those?" He asked. She replied, "No, I can carry them just fine Xero-san. Thanks for the concern, though."

Remembering the reason he went to her, he spoke, "You know Dunois, the new student?" She nodded in confirmation.

"Turns out she's sent by her father to get data from Ichika's IS." She had an odd look at her face. "Wait, she?"

He nodded. "Yeah, according to my informant, she's actually Charlotte Dunois, daughter of Albert Dunois' mistress. They sent her to spy on Ichika." She frowned at his statement.

"Are you suggesting that we expose her?" Xero shook his head. "No, I'm just letting you know since it's part of the deal we have. It's not like she's gonna do something very soon." She nodded in understanding as the boy made a point there. "Is that all, Xero-san?"

Xero replied, "Yeah, that'll be all. I'll take my leave now." Before he went on and continued in his stroll around the academy.

* * *

 **And done! Ok, so that's 1.3K words, which is a tad disappointingly short. Anyway, I'm open to any constructive criticism and suggestions. Laura comes in on the next chapter. I might have to revise the earlier chapters before releasing CH 10. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	10. CH 10: A Match and a Discussion

**Yo, JaphetSkie here! I said Laura will get in next chapter, but I wasn't able to do that. Anyway, this chapter is about Xero and Tatenashi's friendly spar. Enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 10: A Match and a Discussion**_

* * *

 _ **At one of the academy's Arenas…**_

"Hey, you made it! And here I thought that you were too busy to go or that you backed out." Tatenashi beamed as she saw Xero enter the arena.

Today is the day he and Tatenashi were supposed to have a friendly match. He really didn't want this, but he have to if he wanted them to trust him some more. And he knew that she intended to fight him so that she could know more about his fighting style and tactics.

That's too bad, since he's pretty damn sure that he can beat her without much effort at all.

He then grumbled, "Have you ever seen me back out from anything, brat?" She pouted at his remark. "I am not a brat…" she muttered.

"Yeah, and I'm your ancestor reincarnated." He sarcastically replied. "What?"

He quickly said, "Nevermind. Let's get this over with." Tatenashi then deployed her IS, hefting a lance and pointing it at him. He began to use his analysis ability.

" _She will mostly use her lance in melee combat, but since that thing's also a gun, she'll try to shoot me if I give her a window of opportunity to do so. Sheesh, she won't last long enough like the other pilots I've fought earlier. And she wanted me to go all-out? I'll get serious if you can blow up an entire city block in one casual attack like Kary could."_

"Hey, don't space out on me! Suit up!" She called on to him. He couldn't help but sigh as he materialized his armor and readied himself, teleporting some meters away from her.

She went still in shock at what he did as he never saw him move like that, even in the footages. _"No way. Is he that fast? Wait, the ground wasn't disturbed, which means…"_

"Did you just teleport?!" She incredulously asked him. His only reply to her was to equip his Aeroblade, his sword hand ready to draw the blade at any moment.

She finally relented in his silence. "I'll take that as a yes, then." Before she readied herself.

Both were staring each other down, weapons drawn, bodies tensed. Each one were waiting for one another to make their move…

Then Xero vanished in a red and blue blur.

Tatenashi's eyes widened as she lost sight of her opponent. Looking around in caution, she quickly turned behind and fired rapid bursts with her lance's built-in gun.

Xero's armor shrugged off the bullets as he charged at her, drawing his Aeroblade and went for an overhead slash that Tatenashi blocked his attack with her lance.

He didn't let up as he kept on dashing in random directions, relentlessly slashing at her. She tried to block as many attacks as she could, but he was too fast that he's actually managing to hit her a few times already.

"Is this all you've got?" he mocked. She merely smirked and produced a whip sword and counterattacked, forcing Xero to go switch to a defensive.

" _Oh, so you've got another weapon then."_ He thought as he flew up, with Tatenashi chasing after him. "Hey, come back here!"

"Uhhh, how about no?" He then created a Petrol Silhouette to distract her before warping in 3 explosive variants of his Nightstar shurikens. He threw the shurikens that homed towards the unaware Tatenashi, who just slashed at the clone Xero made with her whip sword.

She never noticed the Nightstars until they were too close for her to intercept. She could only mutter one word, "Crap." Before they exploded in close proximity.

Xero looked at the smoke cloud, cautiously observing for any movement. His eyes widened when something struck at him, which he wasn't able to dodge. Thankfully, his armor can take point-blank explosions in a nuclear scale, so he's fine.

He took a glance at Tatenashi and saw that she's somehow controlling the water. _"Troublesome. There's nanomachines in the water. That's why she can control it. No matter, it's nothing I can't handle."_ He thought as his visor scanned the water Tatenashi is controlling.

" _Well I got nanomachines too, but in my blood."_ He smirked as he dematerialized his Aeroblade and began to use his Bloodwires after so many years.

One thing about his Bloodwires is that they've got significant upgrades. Unlike the previous ones he used that are only synched with his blood, these ones are actually made out of his blood with the aid of nanomachines, making them live up to their namesake.

He used the Bloodwires to create a screen to shield himself of Tatenashi's frenzy of water-based attacks ala Walter Dornez as he approached her. Tatenashi tried to keep a distance from him, but he used his Bloodwires to try to entrap her. She futilely tried to keep them from doing so, but one of the wires managed to snag her by the legs which distracted her for a second.

That one second is all Xero needed as he then eventually entangled her with his wires, effectively immobilizing her. "Geez, I never saw you use that before. Not even in the footages."

" _What's he gonna do next, I wonder."_ Tatenashi thought to herself. As if answering her question, Xero called in one of the heaviest weapons in his arsenal: the Obliterator, a minigun that fires corrosive energy rounds that on impact, explodes with the force of an HE round. And it shoots 4 rounds at the same time.

" _Is he trying to kill me?!"_ she frantically though as she tried to get away from the gun's barrels that begun to rotate, which she was able to do thanks to her IS's water manipulation ability that cut the wires.

She quickly flew away the moment she broke free and shielded herself with the water as she went, but Xero trained his oversized gun at her and fired.

The energy rounds slammed to her water shields, withstanding much firepower for a few seconds before they were finally breached and the deadly stream finally hit Tatenashi until her IS's Absolute Defense function activated, signifying that she lost.

The two then went down to the ground and Tatenashi deactivated her IS, while Xero dematerialized his armor. She then stormed off and bombarded him with questions. "Geez, are you trying to kill me? Just what are those rounds made of? And what are those wires? Do you have more tricks in your sleeve?"

He chuckled, "One: I'm not trying to kill you. Two: Energy rounds with corrosive properties that explodes with the force of an HE round. Three: Those are wires made out of my blood and controlled using nanomachines. And Four: I'm yet to use 19 out of 33 weapons in my inventory."

She doubled over in the last statement. "T-thirty three weapons, and you haven't used 19 of them?!" He nodded in confirmation. "Any more questions?"

"Y-yeah, um…Did you create those weapon and your armor?" He blinked. "Uhh, yeah I did. Have to use my connections for the resources, though." She seemed to have bought his lie.

" _Well I can't just tell you that some random being revived me, fixed my armor, and gave me those weapons now, can I?"_

As they chatted for a while as they walked out of the arena, he saw that Chifuyu was just waiting by. "You really did live up to your title, Xero-san." She commented.

"Umm, thank you?" Xero said, unsure what to say to her. He then heard Tatenashi say bye and saw that the girl went on ahead, which leaves just the two of them.

Chifuyu looked at where the Representative Candidate of Russia went to and said to Xero, "You were holding back against her. Why?"

" _Damn, she's quite observant."_ He thought. He then said his reason. "I can't go all out on her 'cause I'll kill her if I do. And if I use my strongest weapon, this island would be wiped out."

This tidbit greatly alarmed Chifuyu, but she doesn't want to believe him. "Wipe out the island? What, you have a palm-sized nuke or something?" Xero shook his head and warped in said weapon.

It is a combat knife of sorts, with a blue color scheme and a blade at least a foot long. "A knife?" She raised an eyebrow. _"I can tell from his face that he's not lying, but I just want to be sure. But since the things he said were true…"_

"It's called the Longinus Knife, or Loner as I called it. It's originally designed as a suicide weapon, but I improved it so that it can be used for offense. It works by overloading anything with energy and make it explode violently. In the case of an IS Core, it have enough energy to wipe this island off the map in the case I stab one with this."

"But what if you happen to stab yourself with it while wearing your armor?" she inquired. "Well, an entire city will get wiped out if I did." She gulped. _"And that was originally intended as a suicide weapon."_ She thought to herself.

"That all?" he asked. "There's still some questions I want you to answer." He raised an eyebrow, but he motioned her to continue as he remembered it.

She started. "How did you meet Madoka?"

"I was raiding a Phantom task base at Cairo when I fought her. I kinda heard things about her and decided that I could try to stop her from going on to the path of revenge."

He then remembered. "Anyway, you haven't answered my question days ago. Was Madoka really a clone or no? Some of my informants tend to get their info wrong."

"She is, in a way. That's all you need to know." His next question threw her off a bit.

"Was Ichika…the same case as she is?"

She hesitated for a few seconds before she sighed. "Y-yes. But that's all I'm telling you."

"Understandable. Your turn to ask."

"How were you able to fight against an IS? I know your weapons are advanced and I'm not gonna ask about them, but how did you even manage to dodge that beam attack and survive being punched twice, by an IS no less?"

He kept a straight face. "Heavy applications of Cybernetics all over my body." Her face wrinkled at that. "Cybernetics. Okay, but which modifications are they in particular?"

She regretted asking him after she received the answer.

"Implanted Neural Computer in the brain that assisted me in and out of combat."

"Artificial eyes with advanced sensors and different visual modes that helped me have the world record for marksmanship."

"Lungs that can filter oxygen underwater and purge deadly material in the air I breathe."

"Digestive system with significantly improved nutrient absorption that I can get 100% of the nutrients of what I eat."

"Bones made out of carbon-based material tougher than titanium alloy that is also resistant to extreme temperatures and pressure."

"Muscles replaced with organo-synthetic nanotubes that allowed me to significantly exceed record breakers in terms of speed, strength, agility, and endurance."

"Nanomachines in my blood that gave me accelerated healing and immunity to all diseases."

"And finally, a heart that can automatically control blood thorought my body without beating, which in turn nullifies my presence in heartbeat monitors."

She was then horrified as he cited the things he went through to become what he is today. She then began to wonder in utter disgust as to who would be willing enough to do this to him.

" _Whoever did this are nothing but monsters. I don't care whether he's willing or not. Doing those things, just for him to become an instrument of death and destruction. Unforgivable!"_

"I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why or who wou-" He was then interrupted when Chifuyu suddenly hugged him out of the blue.

He spluttered, "Wh-what are doing? Why are you hugging me all of a sudden?" She then replied. "I…I just can't fathom how you remained a good person despite losing a part of your humanity."

This stunned him. Even though Chifuyu never truly knew him, she's the only person to genuinely consider him as a good person aside from Enid and his team.

Even though his squadmates never called him a good person face-to-face, their actions and attitude towards him are enough to tell him that they're at least grateful to him for being their teammate , despite his crass and rude personality.

He just decided to let her comfort him for a while. He's settled not to tell her the whole truth, for her own good.

" _Will you still consider me as a good person once you find out the horrible things I've done, Chifuyu? The heinous crimes that not even I could remember?"_

* * *

 **AND CUT! That's 2.1K words for you. Sheesh, I haven't gotten to Laura yet. Anyway, I've been kinda worried that this fic might go nowhere, because this fic only went as an idea and I simply wrote it without any planning. Just wrote the chapters on the fly. And some observant readers will notice that in the first few chapters, I've been writing in paragraphs, which slowly progressed into the current writing style I use. So I'm gonna have to revise the other chapters as I said back at Chapter 9.**

* * *

 **As for all of Xero's 33 weapons, along with explanations in case you don't know:**

 **Longinus Knife – explained just now. All members of Bolverk Squad have one.**

 **MBORF Spartan-issued Riot Shield – riot shield that can shrug off a direct rocket hit. Used by MBORF's Spartan units.**

 **Painkiller – explosive stakes that can be detonated on contact or remotely. Was once Askad's.**

 **Sticky Death – plastic explosives that can be used as a mine, grenade or timed bomb. Askad used them.**

 **N8 – timed bomb with enough explosive yield to take out a city block. Was Askad's but he was killed at XM1 so it was Xero who deployed it.**

 **Armadillo – already explained and showcased on previous chapter. First owned by Askad, then Omega before Xero had it.**

 **Joy v1 – Omega's pistol that shoots twelve .65 rounds.**

 **Joy v2 – improved version, can shoot sixteen .50 rounds.**

 **Joy Colt – explained on previous chapter. Was once Omega's.**

 **Ballistica – explained and showcased in previous chapter. Was once Omega's.**

 **Arctic Empress – Worse than the one Ichika have. It freezes in Absolute Zero. Was once Omega's.**

 **Executer – Again, worse than the one Ichika have. Has more kinetic damage than Ichika's. Was once Omega's.**

 **Closer – Omega's multi-barreled shotgun. Has 12 HE shells and can switch firing mode between 1 shot, triple shot, or all 12 at once.**

 **Terminator – Omega's lever action shotgun that shoots rounds that are a mix of a slug and 00 buck round, making it good for close to medium ranged combat.**

 **Watcher – explained and showcased at previous chapter. Was once Omega's.**

 **Red Fang – can project an energy blade but requires blood as fuel. Whether it's his blood or his enemy's doesn't matter.**

 **Aeroblade – showcased just now. Its windslash ability wasn't used 'cause it's overkill. It can create a wave blade attack out of wind and Xero combined it with his inhuman speed and reflexes at XM3 to kill multiple enemies at once.**

 **All-Purpose Sword/APS – explained in previous chapter.**

 **Light Arrow – explained and showcased in previous chapter.**

 **Obliterator – explained and showcased just now. Was once Omega's.**

 **Bull – quad-barreled pump action shotgun that shoots energy pellets that are as powerful as an HE shell, all four barrels shoot at once. Was once Omega's.**

 **Red Hill – Similar to Red Fang, but it releases a shockwave.**

 **Slicer – Xero's first sword. Made out of strong alloys (technically a phlebotinium) and can cut through many known resilient materials.**

 **Blue Shark – Worse than Ichika's. Xero's have more kinetic damage 'cause the blade shoots faster.**

 **Boomknives – already explained and showcased on previous chapter.**

 **FGM-148 Javelin Custom – long-barreled and upgraded version of the original weapon. Impossible to be wielded by a normal person. Can take out a building in one shot. Used by Omega once.**

 **Ripper – chainsaw-sword used by Xero for anti-armor roles.**

 **Hollow – Xero's Ninjato that could turn invisible.**

 **Bloodwires – already explained and showcased just now.**

 **Sawer – Shuriken with a chainsaw-like mechanism, can return to thrower.**

 **Nightstar – showcased just now. It can home to target. Robo-Askad once used an explosive variant.**

 **Grudge – Upgraded Watcher. Now semiautomatic and the rounds can ricichet 5 times in mid-air.**

 **Bloody Doll – explained and showcased on previous chapter.**

* * *

 **And in case you're wondering about the last statement, it's because Xero cannot remember his past and his identity before he became the fourth member of Bolverk Squad. He only knew the declassified info about him, like how he was trained by ninjas and did some unsavory things for them before he was defeated by Bolverk and captured by MBORF, before they wiped his memories and turned him to a cyborg.**

 **That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	11. CH 11: Melancholy over the Past

**Heyyy, and it's chapter 11! There's gonna be some difference in Xero's backstory, just to let you know. Enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own anything**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 11: Melancholy over the Past**_

* * *

 _ **Many decades ago at XMverse…**_

He woke up with a gasp.

The bright light assaulted him, forcing him to squint his eyes as he tried to reorient himself. A minute after he opened his eyes, he tried to get up the hospital bed, only to find himself restrained by the shackles in his wrists, ankles and torso.

"W-what… why am I… why am I tied up?" he muttered as he finally found his voice. _"More importantly, how am I here in the first place? The last thing I could remember is-"_

Nothing. He remembered nothing. He tried to remember something. Anything that could help. He can only find none.

He can't remember anything.

He then began to panic, _"No, no, no, No, NO! Why can't I remember anything?! Who am I!? Why am I here!?"_

"Stop struggling against the restraints. You'll hurt yourself." His head snapped towards the origin of the voice and he saw a red-haired man that seemed to be in his mid-20s.

For some reason, seeing this man infuriates him. _"Why do I feel pissed off at him? Have I seen him before? Arghhhh… this is so confusing as hell!"_

"Just… who are you?" he finally asked. The red-haired man responded, "My name's Omega. Now you're wondering why you're here, correct?" the teen could only nod.

"I'm not gonna lie, but you're technically a prisoner as my team defeated and captured you. Instead of having you killed, our superiors decided that you still have your uses in the world of the living, so I'll say it's your lucky day. Somehow."

The bedridden teen frowned at that. "What exactly did I do?" He can tell he did something bad, but he wanted to specifically know what had he done.

"You've been destroying our employer's facilities and you raided our convoys. You have to be stopped." The man shrugged.

He narrowed his eyes, "Then why did you let me live, then?" the man calmly replied, "As I said before, you're still too useful to be killed. Besides, you're attacking an organization that had ties with governments around the world. You're the one in the wrong, and my employers decided that you should see things our way. Your skills have been put to waste as you've been killing people and destroying property just because you get paid doing so. By working for us, you could help maintain the peace worldwide."

The teen conceded as he had no other choice. He is their prisoner, after all. "…Fine. But, I want to know why I can't remember shit."

"We have to wipe out your memories, otherwise you'll be very uncooperative." The teen nodded but asked one more thing. "Can I at least know my name?"

The man shook his head. "Your old life is gone now. From now on, your name is Xero."

* * *

 _ **At the "Terminate XV" mission…**_

"The fuck? They got a file about me?" Xero cursed as he was looking up Bio Int.'s database that he managed to hack shortly after he deployed the N8 bomb.

Kary's still recharging after she exhausted herself in the fight against those damned monsters infected by XV, and Omega's out there somewhere going against XV itself one-on-one. And Askad, bless his soul, is reduced to nothingness some minutes ago when he committed fuckin' suicide when he stabbed himself with his own Longinus knife, taking a number of XV-infected with him.

Which leaves him as the one to finish the job. "Fucking damnit. Why'd that sunova bitch Askad have to die early?" He then shook his head. Askad's dead, there's nothing he can do about it. "I'll just take a look in this bloody file, then."

The file interests him a lot, especially because the said file came from Bio Int., his enemy. Now, why would they do that? Why take an interest at a former assassin who specializes in melee combat? Why not Kary who is a walking WMD, or Askad who is the leading genius in the field of robotics and cybernetics? Hell, Omega was more interesting than he is, being an expert spec-ops operative with good leadership, marksmanship skills, and CQC abilities to boot.

Having nothing to lose and very curious to the file's contents about him, he decided to take a look at it.

* * *

 _ **Bio Int.**_

 **Person of Interest File No. 3804**

 **Code 12T-E93-GBZ**

 **Report data compiled by Reid J. Albright**

 **Name:** Unknown

 **Also Known As:** Blade of Anarchy, Horseman of War, Project Xero

 **Sex:** Male

 **Age:** 17 **(Before MBORF)** , 2 **(As a Cyborg)**

 **Nationality:** British

 **History**

 _ **Childhood**_

Born in London, England in December 26, 2021.

Abandoned by parents since birth.

Grew up in an orphanage in Liverpool, England.

Taken by the England-based mercenary ninja clan _**West Shadow**_ at the age of 6. He started to take missions at 13.

 _ **Career (West Shadow Clan Operative)**_

\- Sole perpetrator of the Second UN Massacre, destroying the UN Headquarters in New York in an international assembly which led to the deaths of nearly all vital members of the UN.

\- Infiltrated the Pentagon and stole various military secrets and project data for the Chinese and Russian government.

\- Confirmed to be responsible for starting the war between Russia and EU.

\- Likely suspect in the incident wherein the whole cabinet members of the current administration of the Philippines were killed in the night of Christmas.

\- Suspected to be an informant to various Middle Eastern terrorist groups that led to the subsequent losses of military forces fighting against them.

\- Hired by Bio Int. to attack multiple facilities and convoys affiliated to MBORF.

\- Engaged MBORF's special operations unit _**Bolverk Squad** _and lost, which led to his capture and integration to _**Project Xero**_.

 _ **Career (MBORF Operative)**_

\- Participated in the destruction of _**Project BioSynth**_ of the US Military.

\- Participated in the _**Vancouver Hostage Rescue**_ incident.

\- Assassinated the Russian President and his top generals to stop the war between Russia and EU.

 **Abilities and Skills**

\- One of the best in terms of espionage, manipulation and assassination, pre-MBORF.

\- His combat capabilities significantly increased by a large margin when he was turned to a cyborg.

\- No one knew of his identity as he officially never existed in any records, and his infiltration skills are second to none.

\- Surveillance technology is nothing but a mere hindrance to him, no matter how advanced they would be.

\- He mastered nearly all forms of melee weapons, thrown weapons, and bows.

\- Firearms are his weak point, but he is well-versed in using pistols and other types of handguns.

* * *

"What in the hell… I did all of those?" He whispered in shock as he read the contents of the file. As far as he knew, no one managed to capture the perpetrator of such incidents. Not even MBORF or Interpol. All of those incidents were considered as cold cases and eventually shut down because of the lack of leads and evidences.

To think that it was him all along…

He backed off, ignoring his shaking hands as his vision started to blur. His head was then assaulted with pain. Pain that he never felt before in his life.

"AAARRGGHHH!" He screamed in agony as his head felt like it was being pierced by hundreds of needles. Various images then appeared before his sight, albeit blurred and nearly incomprehensive.

The torment he experienced subsided a minute later, but he was still shaken by what happened. He had a glimpse of his memories, he was sure of it. But there's something that felt… wrong.

" _My memories… they tried to come back but something kept me from fully remembering them. My damn employers did something, I'm sure of it."_

* * *

 _ **2 weeks later, after MBORF's betrayal…**_

"Hey Omega… can I ask you something?" Xero asked Omega. The two are currently chained against the wall of their cell in an MBORF facility in New York.

Omega feebly raised his head and looked at his fellow prisoner, "What is it?"

"I never asked you this, but… do you by chance know things about me before I became a cyborg, or how MBORF wiped my memories out?" Xero asked him, in which Omega quirked up at since Xero never gave much thoughts about his erased memories for 2 years since he became a cyborg.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have much answers for the blue-haired cyborg, but anything counts. "I don't know anything about your past, but Askad told me the rough details on what they did to you. Said that they actually suppressed your memories, not erased them. They injected a special variant of nanomachines in your nervous system that's different from the nanites in our blood. They used it to bury your past to the deepest parts of your mind so you won't be able to remember them. The nanites will also keep the memories from becoming clear to you, in case that they try to resurface."

Xero cursed as his hunch was correct. MBORF really did something to keep him from fully remembering his past. "Is it possible to deactivate the nanomachines in my head?"

Omega shook his head. "No, not anymore since Askad's dead. He's the one who designed and coded the nanites. It'll take a genius of his level to hack them and override the preprogramed commands."

"Just my fucking luck, then." The cyborg ninja sighed. _"Well shit, there goes my chance to recover my memories. Goddamnit Askad."_

* * *

 _ **Now, at Xero's office…**_

" _A lifetime has passed, yet my memories are still suppressed."_ He thought to himself. He might not show it, but he desperately wanted to regain his memories. To know his childhood, to know his name, that's the only thing he wanted aside from changing the world for the better.

Even if the memories are mostly about the sins he did in the past, he will keep on trying until he remembers.

Unfortunately, this humble wish is beyond his reach. But being a persistent bastard that he is, he still hadn't given up on it. Not yet.

A fly buzzing around his ear interrupted his long train of thoughts, snapping him out of stupor. _"Yeah, I should go back to work."_ He thought before monitoring the cameras once more.

But as he was looking at the arena through the cameras, he noticed that a certain silver-haired supersoldier is approaching one of the arenas currently used by Alcott and Huang, and the girl looked like she's up to something not good.

Xero frowned at this and took his Joy Colt and twin APS. He also brought Grudge in scoped form just in case he needs it, before rushing out of the office.

" _Sheesh, considering that she hates Ichika with a passion, there's no doubt she's gonna attack them because the two are close to him. How troublesome…"_

* * *

 _ **Later, at the arena…**_

Lingyin was having a very bad day.

She and Cecilia were training for the upcoming inter-class tournament. Everything were going on just fine, but then… _she_ came.

Laura Bodewig. In her IS. And she challenged them to fight her. They were confident that it would be an easy fight, but they ate those words soon.

All of Cecilia's weapons were rendered useless by some sort of force field she could project. Hell, her Impact Cannons could only do much! All of their attacks simply stop at mid-air!

Cecilia was already down in just a few minutes since Laura challenged then in a 2-on-1 battle, and Laura have the nerve to insult their home countries.

How dare she! Like she's going to let it slide!

She then snapped her twin swords together by their hilts, putting her twin swords into a double-bladed form, before she charged with reckless abandon. Laura simply scoffed and readied her beam saber before she charged in as well. Their weapons were about to connect…

 _BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_

They stopped and pulled back a little bit when they saw the bullet tracers whizz between the two. Everyone within the arena were then surprised when they got a look at the shooter.

It was Xero, holding a twin-barreled revolver at hip level with one hand in the hammer. And he had a very stern expression that could beat the likes of Chifuyu any day.

He then spoke, "I think that's enough fooling around, you brats. Especially you, Ms. Bodewig. Your actions are imprudent and undesirable." In which the girl scoffed at.

"And who are you to-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! AND WHO SAID YOU CAN SPEAK!?" He bellowed like a drill instructor, with Killing Intent aimed at Laura.

She gulped as she backed away in fright from the cyborg. _"He's scarier than the drill sergeant back home!"_ She thought to herself. Xero then looked at everyone present.

"Deactivate your IS. All of you." He commanded, which they all did with haste lest they suffer the wrath of the security officer. It was then Chifuyu arrived, with Ichika and "Charles" tagging along.

Xero's eye twitched. "Why are people always late to do their jobs? It's like last time, for goodness' sakes!" Chifuyu scoffed in amusement, "Maybe because you're _as fast as lightning_ that you tend to arrive to the scene much earlier than we do."

" _Son of a… Don't you dare give them hints, you damn woman!"_ he screamed in his mind. "Anyway, I'll take my leave and you can take it from here, Ms. Orimura." He didn't even bother listening to what the woman was saying to the students when he left.

" _Guess I'll just go back to memory lane, then."_

* * *

 **AND CUT! That's 2.2 K words! I'm slightly running out of ideas, so PM me if you've got some suggestions. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	12. CH 12: A Date

**Heeeyyy! I present you Chapter 12! It's just my first romance attempt in this chapter. Constructive criticism is welcome. Enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own anything**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 12: A Date**_

* * *

 _ **At the Inter-School Tournament…**_

" _I'm so gonna rip the Germans a new asshole for putting a Valkyrie Trace System in this brat's IS!"_ Xero angrily thought to himself as he's playing the defensive game against the possessed Laura. Using guns are out of the question as he might kill the girl, no matter how annoying and stuck-up she may be.

Why is he fighting her instead of Ichika doing it, you ask? It is because Ichika's IS was drained of energy in the earlier fight, but his Yukihira is the best weapon to use in this situation. And so, Xero have to buy the Char Clone some more time to transfer some energy to Ichika for him to be able to manifest Yukihira and use its One-Off ability to save her from the VT System in one fell swoop, which leads to the current predicament Xero's in. _"Can't trouble leave me alone?"_

Fortunately, there's no spectators around as all of the audiences were immediately evacuated from the arena, so one's going to see him and have much suspicions about his capability of fighting off an IS. Truth be told, he actually could beat Laura within a minute and be done with it, but that's IF he can use anything aside from his All-Purpose Swords.s

He rolled left to dodge an overhead strike before he tried to stomp on the blade to keep his opponent from using it, but he was then forced to block a kick from the black IS with his swords in reverse grip, pushing him back a few feet away. _"Man, that's a mean kick you've got there."_ He thought to himself as he quickly got his bearings.

He yelled back to Ichika and "Charles", "You done yet?! Hurry it up, goddamn it!" He was then relieved when he saw Ichika readying himself with the Yukihira in his hands. He said to the boy his plan, "I'll go distract her while you deal the killing blow the moment you find an opening. Not that it would really kill her, but you get my point." Ichika only nodded in response as they both charged.

Going in as planned, he used his one sword to slash at the IS, which his opponent effortlessly blocked as he expected. He then used his other sword to strike it in another direction that forced it to back off. Quickly rushing forward, it retaliated with a thrust but he managed to block the attack with his twin swords, locking their blades against each other.

"Now!" he signaled Ichika, who slashed the IS from behind with his Yukihira, defeating it and freeing Laura from the VT System's hold. Xero managed to catch the girl before she falls to the floor. "I'll get her to the infirmary." Ichika suggested, in which Xero nodded and carefully placed the girl on Ichika's arms, who carried the unconscious girl bridal-style to the infirmary.

"Xero-san, is your work quite a stress for you?" Ichika asked as the two were walking. Xero joked, "Why, you want to take over my job? I'll be more than happy to oblige." The boy stifled a laugh before he replied, "No, it's just that I've kinda noticed that you had more strands of gray hair compared to the last time I saw you."

The cyborg raised an eyebrow. He never had the time to carefully check himself on the mirror, so he wasn't able to notice it. But then, his job is quite easy thanks to the technology and skillset he has, so it's quite strange that he'd have the most obvious sign of stress. So he simply answered "I don't know, maybe it's in the genes." At Ichika, seeing that even he doesn't have a clear and plausible explanation.

Parting ways with Ichika, Xero went back to his office. It's been an eventful day. Somehow.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, in a Phantom Task base somewhere in Japan…**_

A couple of finger snaps shook Madoka away from her thoughts. "Hey M, you're spacing out again." She slapped away at the offending hand and leveled a glare at the offender. Autumn merely grinned and asked, "Something on your mind?"

"It's none of your business." Madoka snapped in irritation. "Anyway, have you seen my phone? I can't seem to find it anywhere." Much to her chagrin, Autumn pulled out the aforementioned phone. The woman's grin widened, "You mean this?"

Madoka tried to reach out for the phone, but Autmn kept her at bay with one arm while she checked out the phone with the other. "Man, you're not even using any locks for your phone. Let's see what're you hiding… oooh, who's Xero?" Madoka froze.

"H-he's none of your damn concern!" she tried to answer with a straight face, but her blush betrays her.

"Oh, so is he your boyfriend?"

"NO!"

"But you have a crush on him?"

"…"

"Aha! You're blushing! You really did have a crush in this guy!"

She finally admitted, "Yes…"

Autumn suddenly had a devious smirk on her face, "You wouldn't mind if I make a call, would you?" Madoka's eyes widened. "Hey, don't you dare! Just give me back my phone, damn it!"

But alas, it was too late for Madoka as Autumn already called Xero. "Hey Madoka, what's up?"

"Oh, Madoka's not here. I'm actually her friend." Autumn replied as Madoka finally gave up and resorted to giving the ginger-haired woman a murderous glare.

"Why did you make the call?" Autumn noted that the voice at the other end had a hint of cautiousness in his tone. "Do you want to know something about good 'ol Madoka here?"

"Alright, shoot."

"Did you know that she's got a crush on you?"

On Xero's end, he had a blank look in his face. "What?"

"I said, she have a crush on you! Anyway, when did you two meet the first time?"

"A few months ago, why'd you ask?" He's not telling them the actual month as he might arouse suspicions if he did, considering the incident with Madoka back at Germany.

Autumn then replied "Oh, I'm actually thinking if you two could have a date." She heard Xero make some choking noises before he coughed a few times. He then asked, "Um, did she agree to this?"

"Well, she doesn't have the courage to do so, so I'm taking initiative." Was all she said, but she actually did it to piss Madoka off for the lulz.

"Would you kindly give back the phone to her? I want to speak with Madoka about it." Autumn then passed the phone back to Madoka, who mouthed to the woman, "I hate you." As the phone was given to her.

"Um, Xero?"

"So, about what that woman said…" Xero started. He doesn't even know how to respond well in this situation. Not once he had a person of opposite sex that liked him, but he'll try his best not to screw this up.

"Y-yeah, it's all true." She finally conceded. There's no point in her hiding it anymore.

Ever since they met, she only held respect on him because of his character and the actions he made. That respect eventually became something more as time went on, and her feelings grew every time they would talk over the phone, discussing their latest exploits and the things that happened to them.

No matter how ruthless he may be in combat, he is a very kind person. He would be more than willing to risk his life just to protect innocent people, as evidenced by his actions when the academy was attacked by an unknown IS (which also befuddles her as to who would dare attack an international facility).

Besides, he's the reason she's changed. If it weren't for him, she would keep on hating her older sister. If it weren't for him, she would've walked down the path to her own ruin.

But then, how would he react? Would he accept her feelings, or would he reject them? Would he say yes, or would he be disgusted at her?

"Madoka…" She felt her heart stop. _"Please don't hate me, please don't hate me…"_

"Give me the time and place."

* * *

 _ **The next day…**_

" _Just where is she?"_ Xero thought as he was looking around the city park for a familiar face. He's wearing brown pants and a blue hooded jacket over his gray shirt. It's just a casual date, so there's not much reason for him to worry a lot about what he should wear.

She said they would meet here, but she still haven't shown up. He's already looking hard enough as he knew that she'll likely put on a disguise as she looked a lot like her sister, but she's way too good at blending in that even the likes of him is quite hard-pressed at looking for her.

Fortunately, his search went over when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. And lo and behold, it is Madoka wearing a brown wig, round glasses, and black turtleneck sweater and pants.

"You look nice, if it weren't for the wig and glasses." He said to her. Madoka shared the same sentiments as he does. "Yeah, the wig's kinda uncomfortable to my head, but I'll manage."

He held out his hand, "Let's go, shall we?" she had a small smile as she took his hand before they began their date. As they went around the city, Xero leaned close to her ear and whispered, "You sure you weren't followed?" She shook her head, "None that I know of. Let's just enjoy this day." This made him at ease, as he doesn't have anything to worry about in their date.

Their day actually went well. They played some games in an arcade, ate some food in a restaurant, they even bought a few items in a nearby mall. Right now, they're in an ice cream stall. He bought a twin Popsicle ice cream for the two of them and proceeded to enjoy it in a bench. As he was enjoying the cold treat however, his phone rang.

He looked at it and frowned as he saw that it's Chifuyu who's calling. _"What does she want now?"_

Nevertheless, he answered the phone. "Yeah, what do you want?"

"Xero-san, I find it strange for you to ask for a day off today, so why did y-"

"I'm dating your sister, that's what!" He quickly replied before hanging up, not even bothering to listen to the woman's rant. He then saw Madoka looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Was it my sister?"

His nod confirmed her thoughts. "Don't worry, it's nothing too major." He reassured her. "Okay then."

Honestly, Xero did not expect Madoka to secretly harbor some feelings for him. He thought that she will only see him as friend at most, but it seemed that she saw him as more than just a friend. The question is: Does he feel the same?

His answer? In a way. The first time he met her, he only held pity towards the girl, seeing that her hate towards her sister will destroy her in the end. He eventually grew fond of her, seeing her as a good friend like he would to his old teammates.

But romantic feelings? Only a little bit. And he's not one to break a girl's heart, so he's willing to give it a shot. Who knows, maybe their relationship might further develop.

As good as it may seem, there's still one teeny little question yet to be solved: Will he tell her the truth about him?

" _Best not to think about it right now."_ He thought to himself as the sun begin to set down, signifying the start of evening. "Hey." He turned to her, only for her to peck him on the cheek. "Thanks for letting me have this."

He felt the heat rise up in his face. "I-it's okay. That's what a gentleman like me would do." She snorted, "You, a gentleman? I digress to that." He had a mock hurt expression, "Your words cut so deep it rend my heart and soul to innumerable pieces." She playfully jabbed him in response before she lay her head on his shoulder.

They remained like that until evening came. And to be frank, he didn't mind this arrangement.

* * *

 **AAANND CUT! That's 2K words for you! Now, you're wondering why I chose Madoka?**

 **One, she needs some love. I never saw a fic where she gets paired with anyone.**

 **Two, I want to be out of the norm.**

 **And Three, she's now OOC since Xero pulled her out from the Dark Side.**

 **Oh, and in case you don't know, Charlotte is a Char Clone (character based on Char Aznable), hence what I called her in this chapter.**

 **Remember that it's my first romance attempt, so constructive criticism is welcome. That'll be all folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	13. CH 13: By the Beach

**Here's Chapter 13 for y'all. THANK YOU FOR THE 3K Views! enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 13: By the Beach**_

* * *

The beach. A place that signifies the border between the land and sea. A place where people go to relax. But in Xero's case, it is the place that reminds him of the time when Kary and MBORF betrayed him and Omega.

He didn't want to join in, but Chifuyu insisted that he must go as well, said that he need to take a break for working hard on his job. The lady also said, "Besides, it's a win-win situation, considering that in this way, you could take a break while watching over Ichika and the Representative Candidates with him at the same time."

Though as much as he wanted to deny it, she's actually made a good point there. Considering that Ichika and his har- _friends…_ are likely targets of Phantom Task, he had to make sure nothing bad happens. Who knows, maybe they changed their schedule at the last minute, and Madoka wasn't able to warn him in time.

But still though, why go to the beach for a study session, of all places indoors that you could go?

And also, those kids may be wielders of pseudo-WMDs, but are they more than willing to kill the enemy at the event of a sudden attack, just to save their own lives? He's pretty sure only one of them could. And so he's here, lounging on a cot he brought with him, sipping on a can of lemonade under the umbrella's shade. He's got the Joy Colt inside the ice box where he kept his cold beverages, so he's quite prepared.

Well so far, he can see that they're having fun. Some of the students are wading around the beach waters, some splashing water at one another. Meanwhile, there's a few faces he recognized that were playing beach volleyball. He then noticed that a certain silver-haired supersoldier seemed a bit out of it in the middle of the game, and the ball hit her right in the face because she wasn't focused.

He chuckled. Who would've thought that Laura Bodewig's greatest weakness is simply to be called as cute?

He then heard Ichika call out to him, "Xero-san! You wouldn't mind playing beach volleyball with us, would you?" He stood up and replied to the boy, "No, I don't actually mind. I'm more worried about you whining like a kid once you lose."

Ichika frowned, "I don't whine like a kid…" he muttered to himself, though Xero likely heard that if his smirk was to be believed. Nevertheless, the older teen took his position to the team opposing Ichika and joined the game.

"Ready to lose, brat?"

"Like I will lose to you!"

* * *

 _ **1 hour later…**_

"Again."

"No, we already won against you twice already."

"Oh, come on! At least one more time!"

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no, damnit!" he sighed in sheer annoyance. The damn brat just won't give up! "Admit it, I'm better than you in this!"

Ichika huffed. "Ugh, fine..." he said in resignation. He saw the sun and said, "It's afternoon, let's go back now."

"Yeah, let's." Xero replied in agreement. It's getting dark, so they have to be indoors soon. Besides, there's a few things he had to do.

* * *

 _ **Later that night…**_

As Xero walked down the halls, he saw Ichika carrying some drinks. Curious about it, he approached the boy. "Ichika, who are those for?" in which the boy replied, "Chifuyu-nee told me to buy some drinks for the others."

Xero nodded in understanding. But still, he wondered if Ichika is fully aware of the girls' feelings towards him or he's just plain oblivious. If it's the latter, he's _probably_ gonna give the boy the biggest ass-whopping of the lifetime he'll ever get. Damn idiot.

"You know those girls have feelings towards you, don't you?" Ichika hesitated for a little bit, which didn't go unnoticed to the cyborg. Despite this, he decided to tell him about it. "Y-yes, I do know about it."

Xero motioned him to continue, relieved that the boy isn't as dense as he expected. "And?"

"It's just that, I don't know what to do. They're all attracted to me for some reason, and I can only choose one girl. But then if I choose, I'll break the others' hearts! I-I…" His knees felt weak.

"I don't want to do that, I just can't."

Ichika then felt Xero's hand in one of his shoulders. "Ichika," he said in a sickly sweet tone, his face having a serene smile that the male IS pilot couldn't tell whether it's fake or not. "You're an idiot." Ichika did a double take. "Wh-what? But why?"

"You know that polygamy isn't legal unless you're a Muslim. One way or another, you'll eventually have to choose only one girl as a partner in the relationship. It's inevitable and you know it. But since you're not much experienced with relationships like this, I'll try to help you out. So first,"

It was then that the cyborg had a serious expression. "Do you reciprocate their feelings toward you?"

"I don't get what yo-"

"Just answer the question."

"I… don't know, really. Maybe? It's kinda platonic, I guess." Xero took a deep breath. He'd already expected this. Besides, he felt the same towards Madoka, but he's slowly working on that, so he can say that the same thing could apply to Ichika. He asked again, "Did you ask your sister or any of your other friends for advice?"

"No, I don't want to bother them." Xero almost facepalmed at that. Almost. _"What bull! You don't want to bother them? Some pathetic excuse you got there…"_

"Describe the girls." He finally said. He is a very patient man, after all. Teaching a student for decades does that to you. Ichika was deep in thought for a second before he answered.

"Well, first of all there's Houki. She's my childhood friend, and she's good at Kendo. She's quite stubborn and very strict at times, but then that's probably because she took the Kendo discipline very seriously."

"There's Cecilia, and she's British. She had this holier-than-thou attitude towards me at first, but she eventually warmed up to me. Oh, and she's not very good at cooking."

"There's Lingyin, and she came from China. She's had this competitive streak around her, and she tends to be hotheaded at times. She's quite Cecilia's opposite in cooking food. The food she makes are quite good, really."

"Then there's Charlotte, she's French. She's a very kind person, and she's the only girl that doesn't try to hit me out of jealousy. She's smart too, 'cause she knows many things about IS, but that's maybe because she's the daughter of the CEO of Dunois Industry."

"Finally there's Laura, and she's a German. Her upbringing's the reason why she's so good at piloting her IS. But even though she's a good pilot, her ability to interact with people is… stunted. But we're working on that, so it eventually won't be a problem anymore in the future."

Xero was deep in thought as he carefully listened to the boy, and when Ichika was finished, the last member of Bolverk Squad finally said, "Do you even have standards in choosing a partner? Or God forbid, are you gay?"

Ichika spluttered, "WHAT?! NO, I'M NOT GAY!" He then calmed down from his outburst. "But, standards? Yeah, I guess I do." Xero then inquired, "Then pray tell what the ideal girl is for you."

"Hmm… to begin with, I prefer a girl who's very kind, but still capable of fighting back when needed. I also would like it if she's not the selfish type, or like the ones who are after me because of my status." He said. Xero commented about it, "You got a cliché criteria, but that'll do."

After a few seconds of silence, he finally laid out his verdict. "Ichika, I can tell that you're a very kind person and that you respect girls a lot, but your inexperience with regards to relationships, added with the fact that you never sought anyone for advices, made you an idiot in the field of romance. This also led you to sometimes think at the other girls' advances the wrong way. Your respect over girls is one of the prime reasons you don't want to choose over the five of them, seeing that it will leave the other four heartbroken."

"But you must know Ichika, it's just how life goes. Everyone goes through both happy and sad times. There's always one point in everyone's lives when Luck smiles on them, or the times they despair over a great loss. It's hard to forget the bad things that happens to you, but everyone must move on. Yes, the other four left behind will be heartbroken, but each of them will eventually find the one they can truly love."

"And as for you, choose your girl wisely. This might affect your future. Make careful judgments based on their character and see if you two could have a healthy relationship if given the chance, then talk to them about it. Whether if you want to do it one-by-one or altogether, it's your choice to make."

Before Xero walked away, Ichika asked him, "Xero-san? Have you ever been in a relationship?" Xero smiled, "I do. And just like you, my feelings for her were just platonic, but I was more than willing to give it a chance. We were just dating for a few weeks, yet our relationship went well."

Ichika nodded in understanding. "Oh, okay. Anyway, thanks for the advice, Xero-san!" he thanked the cyborg, who merely waved back without looking back as he went.

* * *

 _ **The next day…**_

"The hell? What's with the bunny ears?" Xero asked the other two people with him as he saw a strange sight that morning.

There's a pair of robotic rabbit ears on the ground, and there's a sign that says to pull them out. Kinda fishy, if you'd ask Xero. He saw that Houki immediately left, leaving him and Ichika on the scene.

"So… should we pull it out?" Ichika asked, unsure on what to do. Xero shrugged, "Your call." He lazily answered, though he was actually tense and ready to draw the Joy Colt at the moment's notice.

Ichika pulled out the rabbit ears, but nothing happened. However, Xero heard a sound reminiscent to a fast-falling projectile, and his eyes widened when he saw _something_ falling down from the sky.

"GET DOWN!" he yelled as he grabbed Ichika and dropped to the ground. The blast was strong enough to kick in a lot of dust, so Xero had to use the special functions of his cybernetic eyes to see through the . Seeing what crashed down, he began to think that his day just got weirder.

" _A carrot drop pod? Who in their right mind does that?!"_ he incredulously thought. He then heard a hiss from the pod, making him draw out his Joy Colt in alarm and take aim at the carrot pod. He could discern a feminine figure wearing a dress, that's for sure. And his scanners doesn't get any energy readings similar to an IS Core, so the intruder's not as dangerous as she initially seemed to be. Just crazy, he supposed.

And who's crazy enough to create a dramatic entrance like this? He unfortunately had no idea. But his question will be answered very soon. But first…

 _BANG! BANG!_

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa, no guns plea-!" Her pleas went unsaid when Xero rushed towards the intruder and held the Joy Colt by the barrel as he slammed the gun's handle right to her cranium.

The intruder took a fetal position and cradled her head. "Owieee…" she moaned in pain. Seeing that she won't be doing something stupid anytime soon, he dragged the woman by the ear towards Ichika, ignoring the woman's whines and his gun still aimed at her just to make sure.

"You know this woman?" he asked the boy, whose eyes widened in recognition at the person Xero was dragging towards him. "That's… Houki's older sister, Shinonono Tabane-san."

He had an incredulous face for the third time that day. _"This crazy woman created the Infinite Stratos? How in the flying fuck…"_ He then let go of the woman, shaking his head in annoyance bordering frustration. "I need a drink. Wait, a drink this early in the morning? Nah, I'll just smoke it."

Having enough headache to take in, he left for his room, leaving the two behind. Or three rather, as he noticed that Cecilia was standing by behind them, her mouth agape in shock over the woman's identity.

He ignored her though. He had enough weird shit for this morning.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

" _Oh bloody hell, there's the crazy woman again!"_ Xero though as he saw Tabane rush down the cliff while childishly screaming out "Chi-chan" as she tried to hug the woman, only for her attempt to fail miserably thanks to Chifuyu.

Seeing that he's situated above the cliff, he could only infer what's going on based on their actions and emotions as they're beyond earshot. And so he observed.

He saw a red IS materialize, and this made him interested. _"A personal IS created by Shinonono herself? Now that's something. And seeing Houki's the only one in the group without a personal unit, I guess it's for her. The two are sisters, after all."_ He thought.

He decided to ignore the part where Houki wore the unit and Tabane did some reconfigurations, seeing that things are going fine. They're surely gonna test her IS out afterwards, and that's the part he's very much looking forward to.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to see it.

His comms device rang, and it's one of his moles at the US Government. A high-ranking officer at the military, to be exact. He frowned at this, since said mole never contacted him unless something important came up on the US military.

He answered the call after he made sure no one is around. "What happened?" he asked the mole. A gruff male voice spoke, "We got an IS testing gone wrong. Remember Silver Gospel?"

"Yeah, I did. Joint project of US and Israel. An experimental Gen 3 IS that's outfitted with the latest technology out there, and it's capable of supersonic flight." Xero replied.

"It suddenly went berserk, and we don't know what could possibly cause it. The thing's flying near your vicinity, but if you're thinking of engaging it, be careful. The combat AI the eggheads put in it is no joke. It's designed to quickly adapt against enemy tactics and weaponry. You only have a very short time window to take it down before it does, especially because you're one of the main reasons why that system is implemented."

" _Fuck, a similar ability to adapt like I could? This is XV all over again…"_ the cyborg silently cursed. The Silver Gospel's gonna give him one hell of a fight, that's for sure. If push comes to shove, he might have to use the Longinus Knife, and that's something he didn't want to happen.

The world already marked him as the Number 2 Most Wanted, and he'd very much prefer that they don't raise him to Number 1 because he had a weapon that can utterly obliterate an IS.

Thanking his mole for the info, he hung up. He was left to his thoughts. _"Looking at what he said, my abilities won't work against it since it's unmanned. The Loner is only a last-ditch weapon in case plans A to Z are out. That means I'll have to pull out the big guns as soon as I engage it. But then, ISA's more than likely gonna be involved, so they'll instead put me as a backup in case things go wrong_."

He _almost_ frowned at this. It's either the instructors or the Representative Candidates will fight Silver Gospel, and he's pretty sure they won't be able to beat it even with teamwork. They're gonna need a miracle if they'd ever hope to even fight it on even grounds.

Despite the direness of the situation, he grinned. For the first time since he got here in this world, he finally saw an opportunity for a good fight, and he's sure as hell not going to let it pass.

* * *

 **AAANNND DONE! Now that's 2.7 K words for ya! Man, I could've finished this last week, but the Spirit of Procrastination possessed me. So next chapter is the fight against Silver Gospel. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	14. CH 14: Prelude to Battle

**Heya, JaphetSkie here! Sorry for posting this a bit too late. My damn mom and older sister wouldn't stop locking me out of the computer. They'd disagree with every little thing I do, even writing fanfics. Anyway, enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own anything.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 14: Prelude to Battle**_

* * *

"Chifuyu, I still stand by my argument. They can't beat it, and it'd be much safer if you'd send me in instead." Xero said to Chifuyu through the comms as he flew below Ichika and Houki with his armor's stealth function on, making him virtually invisible not just from visual perception, but also from various sensors and scanners. As he expected, they ordered him to just stay back and will only engage Silver Gospel if Ichika and Houki were proven to be incapable of defeating the IS.

It did not kill his excitement however, as he knew that the two cannot beat it, and he'll eventually had to fight it himself. All he had to do is to make sure that these kids would make it back in one piece, then he'll be left to enjoy a good fight with Silver Gospel. If push comes to shove, he'll just stab its robotic head with the Longinus knife. Easy-peasy.

But still, he'd very much prefer it if the two wouldn't have to fight it. Sure, Ichika's Yukihira will suffice on dealing with it, but it's too much of a risk to take.

However, Chifuyu doesn't see it that way. "For the 8th time, you're not engaging it. You damn know well UN's hunting you down, so don't you dare try it just because you wanted to fight Silver Gospel!" she huffed.

"Oh, come on! It's not like they'll know I'm in cahoots with you guys! They're idiots, I tell ya!" he complained, though he added in his mind, _"Well they really are idiots, since they've unknowingly let a few Phantom Task members within the UN's high seats. Those agents were one of the damn reasons why UN turned a blind eye on the issue of stolen IS Cores."_

Chifuyu replied, "You underestimate those two, Xero-san." He shook his head, "No, I'm being realistic here. Silver Gospel's specially designed to deal with the likes of me, yet you still think Ichika and Houki can defeat it. I know they've got skills and their units far exceed what many nations can develop, but we're talking about an IS with advanced combat adaptability and the capability of fighting for days! I don't care if you'd say that all it would take is one strike from the Yukihira, they'll be dead before that happens, damn it!"

"Have a little faith to them, would you?" she assured him, in which he scoffed at before he focused back to the matter at hand. He saw that the two began to engage the unmanned IS, and it seemed that they were barely keeping up against it. He suddenly thought, _"If I never existed here in this world, they probably wouldn't have improved the Silver Gospel's AI, and things would be much easier for them. However, it's not the case here."_

Seeing that they were fine for now, he looked around his surroundings and much to his frustration, he saw a small ship in a distance. He contacted Chifuyu once more, "Chifuyu, I've got a ship here, presumably a fishing vessel. Either they're illegally fishing on the area or they haven't heard the warnings. Want me to check it out, or give a warning shot so it'd leave?"

She answered, "Give them a warning shot. A big one just to make sure, but make sure you don't accidentally kill them." He let out a smirk as he heard that. He's got a perfect weapon for the job: Omega's customized FGM-148 Javelin rocket launcher.

She only said "make sure you don't accidentally kill them", but she never said anything about firing on the ship itself, didn't she?

Aiming the weapon with its guidance systems turned off, he fired a rocket right beside to the ship's bow, taking care that he wouldn't sink the ship. A fiery explosion followed soon after the rocket hit, and the ship turned away a minute later.

Maya contacted him, "Xero-kun, you were told to fire a warning shot! Someone could've been hurt from that, or worse, killed!" she worriedly said. "Don't worry about it. I've scanned the ship and there's no one at the bow. It might've scared them very much, but no one's dead or injured." He calmly replied.

* * *

Meanwhile with Ichika, he heard an explosion and saw the damaged ship. "Houki, there's a ship on the area and it got hit! We've got to help them!" he told her, thinking that the ship got hit because of the ensuing fight when Xero intentionally hit it. Houki heatedly replied, "No, just leave them! They shouldn't be here in the first place, so it's their fault they got caught on the crossfire in the first place!" He interjected, "But Houki, these are living people! We can't just let them get hurt!"

However, she was having none of it. "Damn it Ichika, just forget about them, they're criminals!" the next thing he said to her shook her to the very core. "Houki, just because you've gained power doesn't mean you'll ignore those who are weaker than you. That's just not like you at all."

In the distance, Xero watched in stony silence as he saw that Houki went still and dropped her swords in horrified realization from what Ichika said. Silver Gospel then took the chance and fired a barrage of energy projectiles from its wings. He cursed, the two don't have much energy left to take that much attack. He quickly requested Chifuyu to let him engage it before it could possibly kill them.

"Chifuyu, they won't last any longer!" He almost screamed. She didn't waste a second as she said, "Go on." giving him free rein on the situation. The moment he heard her words, he sped forward to save Ichika, who went in the way of the barrage to shield Houki.

After he made it sure that the two wouldn't get caught on the energy barrage, he held out his hand and projected a blue unidirectional energy shield, but it only held out against half of the energy missiles and eventually whittled away, letting the rest hit him head-on. Not like it would hurt him, anyway.

* * *

Ichika was very much surprised. He was about to get in front of Houki to protect her from Silver Gospel's attack, but a newcomer just went in and took the attack instead. He couldn't help but worry if the person's alright, but he couldn't see clearly through the smoke, so he's not sure. "Umm… h-hello? Are you all right over there?" he called over.

"Like that would stop me." The newcomer replied. It was then he realized that the person's voice sounds… familiar. "Xero-san, is that you?" A silhouette of a nod was all it took to confirm his suspicions. As the smoke finally cleared, Ichika had a good look at the older teen.

He is wearing a high-tech armor of sorts, probably an IS, while his face is covered by a half-mask and a 6-eyed visor, but the young IS wielder still recognized him despite what he currently looked like, though Ichika swore he'd seen his armor on TV before. And that was when he had an epiphany…

"Xero-san, you're… Blue Lightning?!" he exclaimed in shock as he found out that IS Academy's dayshift security officer turned out to be the world's Number 2 Most Wanted.

"I'll explain everything to you later. But for now, pull out and recuperate, I'll take it from here." Xero said to the boy, who could only nod and grab a shell-shocked Houki as he went as far away as possible, with one thought going on his mind. _"Xero-san, please be safe!"_

Meanwhile with Xero, he took one last look at Ichika and Houki as they fled the area. "Now that we're alone…" He manifested Red Fang and Red Hill. "Give me a good fight, would you kindly?"

And he vanished from its sight in a blue and red blur.

* * *

 **AAANNND DONE! 1.3K words? That's quite short, and I apologize if it's like that. As I said earlier, some of my family members oftentimes would try to stop me from writing, and so the time window for me to write was significantly shortened. Anyway, next chapter is the fight between Xero and Silver Gospel! That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	15. A Word

Hey guys, JaphetSkie here!

This is not a chapter, but rather a little notice.

Now, I realized that ever since vacation started, I would spend 12 hours on the computer PER DAY, and this streak haven't broke for nearly 2 MONTHS.

What's the price? Nothing, except that my eyesight began to blur by 1 grade and my head always felt heavy. Oh, and I lost some kilos, too.

I don't want to do this, but I'm gonna have to take a break for a while. Don't worry, I'll still be able to continue writing, but in a much, much slower pace than before. Give or take, I'll dedicate at least 1-2 hours in writing per day.

Now, I've been planning to finish Blue Lightning on the 16th Chapter, then I'll write a sequel if you'd want me to. I also looked at the prologue of Ouroboros, and I realized that I should rewrite it.

For those who liked my stories, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Anyway, be honest with me guys: Am I doing good or not? I'm not aiming to get popular, but I just want my fics to be as good as possible, and I'm not so sure in my skills. Just review my fics thoroughly, and kindly point out my mistakes.

Once again, I'm sorry. JaphetSkie, signing out.


	16. CH 15: Of Shadows and Angels

**Heya! It's a me, JaphetSkie (with Mario voice)! Entrance exams happened this week, so I wasn't able to work for a new chapter. Okay, so Silver Gospel is gonna be VERY different and VERY OP from canon. And for those who were patient for the release of my new chapter, I thank you for your support. Anyway, enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos. The idea for this fic, maybe.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 15: Of Shadows and Angels**_

* * *

 **Play: "Silent Line (OP-INTENSIFY)" by FreQuency**

"Houki," Ichika started as he stopped mid-air as they fled from the fight. "I think we should go back." He looked back to where they came from minutes ago. He can discern streaks of blue and red light from the distance, and he noticed it earlier that the red lights became lesser in frequency as the fight raged on. The dread he felt only grew. _"No, don't tell me you're losing the fight as well, Xero-san!"_ he worried.

Houki, who came over her shock a few minutes ago, was a bit unsure. "Um, I don't know about that. He said we should go." She almost whispered. However, Ichika heard her and frowned at that. "Houki, you can go if you want, but I'm going back there."

But she protested, "Look, our shields are almost gone. Any more beating, and we're toast! We were lucky Xero-san was there, and if he wasn't…" she let the words hang, but Ichika got her point across.

However, it didn't make him waver in the slightest. "If you don't want to help, then go back. I'm staying and you won't change my mind." He said before shooting off back to the fight. Houki couldn't help but sigh in exasperation and mutter, "Such an idiot as always." as she followed him.

* * *

 _ **Meawhile, with Xero…**_

" _Damn, I used up more blood than I expected…"_ Xero thought as he teleported away from another energy barrage Silver Gospel sent towards him before he retaliated with another energy slash from Red Hill. He already switched Red Fang in favor of the explosive Painkiller stakes, seeing that close ranged combat is impossible if he couldn't even get close to the rogue IS.

But then, he only used the stakes as distractions at most, and it seemed that the thing's starting to learn not to shoot them down and began to dodge the thrown projectiles instead.

" _Well, how about you dodge plasma rounds that can bounce mid-air and we'll see how you like 'em."_ He though as he dematerialized his current weapons, seeing that they're useless. He then proceeded to manifest Grudge, hefting the 4-feet long rifle as he loaded the 12-round magazine to its camouflaged yellow frame.

He took a deep breath and raised the gun. Seeing that he lost a lot of blood, it proved a bit harder to do than before despite the cybernetic enhancements present in his body. Nonetheless, he managed to elevate the semiautomatic rifle at head level and aim down the sights.

"Hehehehe… EAT SHIT, BITCH!" he madly taunted as he unloaded _all_ 12 rounds to Silver Gospel, each one hitting it 5 times in random directions. Of course, it tried to dodge the gunfire, but Xero's Neural Computer calculated the round trajectories and plotted where the rounds will reflect and their angles in random within a thousandth of a millisecond, so it obviously failed in its attempt.

Not letting up on his assault, he quickly slapped on a fresh new mag as he ejected the depleted one and resumed firing, wildly boosting and teleporting around in random directions to keep it from getting a solid lock-on to him. It was working so far, but he knew he had to change tactics soon. It didn't stop him from grinning like a madman, though.

Unfortunately, that "soon" went on earlier than he expected as he saw that Silver Gospel stopped attacking for a while as it changed to its 2nd Shift, with multiple wings out of pure energy taking place of the metallic appendages. He inwardly cursed, _"Bloody hell, it's now on 2nd Shift. Playtime's over, I'm gonna have to wrap this up soon."_ And so, he switched Grudge for the Longinus Knife on his right hand before he placed it on the sheath on his waist, then he equipped Closer, a 12-round multi-barreled shotgun that fires HE shells.

Not wasting a second, he switched the shotgun's firing mode and shot all HE rounds simultaneously, quickly teleporting behind it once the rounds flew. It seemingly didn't noticed him, so he watched it reaction to the incoming HE rounds. He expected that it would dodge the attack, or intercept it with an energy barrage.

He didn't expect it to fire a concentrated beam of energy with its wings. _"Tsk, now THAT is something…"_ he silently commented with disdain. Having seen enough, he went in for the kill and struck like a snake…

Only for it to turn around and lash out at him with its clawed hands.

"Fuck!" he swore when he was forced to back away for a bit, but it was a bit too late and Silver Gospel managed to scratch his armor. He took a good look on the damage done and hissed in irritation, "Ugh, damaged the plating by some centimeters deep. The hell those claws are made of, anyway?" Before he was forced to dodge another melee attack from the unmanned IS.

He was beginning to think that Murphy's Law is taking effect in his situation right now. _"Anything that could go wrong will go wrong, or so they say. Pfft… like I care about that."_ He internally snorted, as he is not much of a believer in the aforementioned adage. He faced the impossible odds before and succeeded, so why not now?

He reloaded the shotgun and made a quick check on his vitals and armor integrity. The damage on the upper torso area is repairable, but the amount of resources and the equipment required to do so are beyond his reach for now, so he gotta make sure that he won't let himself get hit next time. The energy levels are on manageable levels, so it'd be fine. And his vitals however…

An average human will die once they lost more than 40% of their blood, and he already lost about 53%. He should've been dead minutes ago, but his willpower and enhancements kept him going. However, he's still human, and it will be a matter of time before his body fails. So overall, his state of health as of now is NOT good at all.

" _Maybe I should've destroyed it immediately at the start."_ He contritely thought as he dodged another onslaught of attacks from the enemy. The odds that he will be defeated is further increasing the more he drags on this fight. With his current state, carrying heavy weapons is not advisable, so he's stuck on using small arms weaponry. He had to finish this fight as quickly as possible without the big guns. It's beginning to irritate- No, not irritate, _infuriate_. _"Arrgghhh, FUCK IT! I'll just wing this shit!"_

Firing another salvo of HE shells to his adversary, he rolled left to avoid another beam attack from Silver Gospel and switched Closer with the Ripper, an anti-armor chainsaw sword. _"Might as well cut your arms off first…"_ He darkly thought, not even realizing that he's beginning to lose his calm demeanor in battle, that he's slowly giving in to the one thing he thought he'd lost decades ago.

Bloodlust.

And cut the arms he did, as he made a mad dash towards the rogue IS, wildly jinking around and dodging the energy projectiles thrown at him. Of course, it tried to block his attack, but there's a good reason why Xero preferred using Ripper against heavily armored enemies; the teeth of the sword vibrate in very high frequencies that even when they're dull, they can still cut through the armor of the British-made Challenger 2 MBT with ease. IS-grade armor might be a different story, but Ripper can still do the job.

Once he tore one arm off from the shoulder down, he grabbed it by its remaining arm and severed it as well. Armless, Silver Gospel kicked him away, driving him back by a few meters. Despite this, he had a smirk in his face, as he knew that its combat capabilities are reduced. However, that smirk was removed when he saw that it created replacement arms out of pure energy.

His shock was soon replaced with unspeakable fury, seeing that Silver Gospel just wouldn't go down. He roared in anger, "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" before he switched Ripper with Bull, a quad-barreled pump action energy shotgun. Teleporting behind it, he fired energy pellets at it with reckless abandon.

The bloodlust took over him too much that he didn't pay attention to the Silver Gospel's energy constructs that changed from color blue to violet, then finally blood red. He also failed to notice the energy arm of the rogue IS that is about to grab his neck. The heat it exudes is almost as hot as the sun's. And boy, despite the fact that his armor could take Nuclear-level explosion at point-blank range, it _really_ hurt.

"AAARRGHH! SON OF A BITCH!" He screamed in pain as he felt the armored collar suddenly heat up, the now red-hot steel burning his neck. If this keeps up, he might lose his head- no, he WILL lose his head. He had to get away, and fast!

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the offending arm and tried to pry it off, ignoring the searing pain on his hand. Seeing that it didn't work, he decided to give it a good point-blank shot on the face using Bull, but it was only able to make his adversary flinch. Beginning to lose strength, he decided to dematerialize the shotgun as he couldn't even properly aim it anymore.

He saw the Silver Gospel's other energy arm about to grab his face, and it was at that point that he knew: he fucked up.

" _Seems it's my time to die the second time around. I'm sorry, Madoka. You won't be able to see me again…"_

Before it could kill him however, a flash of light appeared in the corner of his vision, and it didn't went unnoticed to the unmanned IS as it stopped what it's doing and looked over to the cause of the bright flash.

Fate decided that it isn't his time to go. At least, not yet.

* * *

 _ **With Ichika and Houki, a few seconds earlier…**_

"Come on, come on! Please make it in time!" Ichika chanted like a mantra as he and Houki are flying at top speed just to get back on the fight. Well, at least Houki is flying at top speed, considering that Ichika is on her back as the Akatsubaki is much faster than Ichika's Byakushiki. However, he still felt that they're going slow. "Houki, can you get any faster?" he asked. She shook her head, "No, this is as fast as I could go!"

Despite this, they managed to reach the combat zone, and the sight they've beheld is only describable with one word: Horror.

The target IS had Xero in a chokehold, and it's obvious that it's hurting him badly. He tried to blast it on point-blank range with a shotgun to the face, but it wasn't enough.

Not wasting precious time, Ichika equipped Blue Shark and flew as fast as he could, considering that all of his ranged weapons are out of ammunition. His face became more panicked when he saw that Silver Gospel's free hand is poised to grab Xero's head, and he knew the cyborg will die once it happens.

"No, no, no, NO! DON'T YOU DARE!" He screeched as he saw the glowing arm slowly closing in to Xero's head much further. He didn't want to believe it, but he knew deep down in his gut that he won't make it, and that there's nothing he could do to stop the older teen's impending death. He cursed his own weakness. _"Damn it all! If only I have the power to save him…"_

" **Do you wish for more power?"** He heard a voice ask him. Time seemed to slow down very much. Confused at the situation, he asked the voice. _"Who are you?"_

" **I repeat, do you wish for more power?"** It said. _"Why do I even- Yes! And I don't wish for it, I need it!"_ He replied, not wanting to waste an opportunity to save a friend.

" **Why?"** it asked him once more. _"Because there's someone out there that needs me! If I fail to have it, he'll lose his life!"_ The voice remained silent for a while before it finally answered, **"Very well."**

And all he saw was white.

* * *

 _ **Back to Xero…**_

"Heh, well I'll be damned…" he painfully muttered when he saw Ichika's IS transform to a new form. And despite his injuries, he can definitely tell that Byakushiki is now on 2nd Shift as well. Now that the boy had Silver Gospel's attention, it let him go and decided to engage Ichika.

The searing hot sensation already left his neck, but the damage has been done. _"First I lost an impossible amount of blood, and now I've got third-degree burns on my neck and hands. If this keeps up, I'm gonna be dead."_ He remarked as the nanomechs dulled the pain and repaired the damages done to his body, albeit in a slow rate.

He then sighed. This is actually worse than fighting Kary. Back then, he wasn't alone. There's Omega, Omicron Squad, and the robotic incarnation of Askad fighting alongside him. But this time on the other hand, he's on his own.

And look where it got him, he got his ass handed over by an unmanned weapon that had the combat-adaptive skills of XV and the immense firepower Kary could bring out. He clearly underestimated its abilities and he terribly paid the price for it.

His musings were cut off when he felt a pair of hands grab him by his midsection and arm, and realized that it was Houki who did it. He raised an eyebrow, "Um, you don't have to do that. I'm alright."

She gave him a stern expression and rebuked, "You're swaying sideways and losing altitude, is that even okay?" He blinked in response. He wasn't able to notice that the fatigue is slowly catching up to him, though he appreciated her help. "Thank you."

He observed Ichika take on Silver Gospel, and the cyborg realized that the upgrade Ichika had will not be enough to beat it. He had to think and strategize fast or else…

"Hold on for a sec." he said as he contacted Chifuyu and Maya. He then asked in a low voice, "Quick question, is Akatsubaki capable of 2nd Shift or not?" The other line was silent for nearly a minute before he heard a reply from Chifuyu, "No, but according to Tabane, it had a One-Off Ability that's supposed to work in tandem with Byakushiki. She won't tell us what it is, though."

He gave his thanks before he cut the comms. He then pried himself off of Houki and said, "Your IS had a One-Off Ability, and they said it was best used with Byakushiki, so get in there and help him out!" however, she had an objection. "But I don't even know how to use it!"

He rolled his eyes behind the visor, "Did I look like I give a damn thing about it? Come over there and assist Mr. Harem King while you try to figure out how your IS's ability works. You can do that, right?" He didn't need an answer as Houki charged head on and lashed out with her swords to the enemy.

" _Okay then, all that's left to do is to get Houki to figure out the One-Off Ability of her IS, look for an opening, then stab the fucker in its core."_ He thought. _"But then, I've only got a short time window for that before its adaptive combat system kicks in once more. Given my current state, this won't be easy."_ He grimaced, he really shouldn't had underestimated it.

His visor's scanners noticed that the Akatsubaki's shield went back to full, and his interest became much greater when the same thing happened to the Byakushiki when it made contact with Houki's IS. _"Oh, so the Akatsubaki's One-Off Ability lets it recover energy and do the same to other IS upon contact? Now I can see why it's best used with Byakushiki."_ He thought in approval.

He once again reviewed the current status of the Cervical Armor. Strangely, the energy levels are nearing the critical levels and everything in the suit are powered by the reserve energy pack. Fearing that he may know the cause, he made a quick diagnostics check on the power system.

The suit's reactor was thermally stressed which forced it to initiate an emergency shutdown, giving him at least 3 more minutes before the suit shuts down and dematerialize. He spat out a long string of curses that could make a sailor blush before finally muttering, "Great, situation's much worse than I thought it would be. Fuck you Fate, fuck you very much." He contacted Ichika and Houki, "You two, try to pin it down in one place, 'cause I've got a weapon that could wipe it out in one hit."

"WHAT?!/BULLSHIT!"

He winced at the incredibly loud voices. "Geez, not so loud. Anyway, as I was saying, try to pin it down in one place. Signal me and I'll take care of things." He then contacted Maya. "Another quick question, can IS shielding take a point-blank explosion of a semi-nuclear scale?"

…

" _Wa_ _it for it…"_

"…W-what? Would you please repeat that, Xero-kun?"

"I said, can IS shielding take a semi-nuclear level explosion at point-blank range?" he asked again while thinking, _"At least she didn't scream it out loud, unlike a certain duo…"_

She finally explained, "Umm… at point-blank range, no. But the chances of survival increases the further away the pilot is from the ground zero." He rolled his eyes in response. _"Obviously."_

He equipped the Ballisticas and shifted them to their gauntlet forms. Putting himself in a close but safe distance from the rogue IS, he fired bursts upon bursts of gunfire to Silver Gospel. Thankfully, it decided to ignore him. Who knows what would happen to the remaining combatants once that thing finally kills him.

He checked his energy reserves, he's got exactly 36 seconds left. He's running out of time. But fortunately, he didn't had to wait much longer.

Seeing that it was seemingly disoriented by a lucky hit to the head inflicted by Ichika, he unsheathed the Longinus knife as he screamed to them, "Get away as far as possible, NOW!"

 **[00:26]**

The Silver Gospel lashed out, unleashing an energy barrage far greater than what it thrown at earlier. However, he evaded it by using the teleportation module twice, despite the fact that it's burning out the remaining power of his suit much further.

 **[00:05]**

Ignoring the timer, he weaved and dodged through the remaining energy projectiles.

 **[00:04]**

His adversary tried to get away from him as fast as it could, but he is clearly faster.

 **[00:03]**

With no more obstructions in his way, he tightened his grip on the Longinus knife and held it on a reverse grip. He saw that the Silver Gospel suddenly stopped and faced him, its ethereal red arms poised to strike him at the moment's notice. It didn't bother him, though. One lucky hit to its core will be enough to trigger the energy overload.

 **[00:02]**

He ignored the searing pain in his stomach as he let out a primal roar and slashed.

 **[00:01]**

And then there were none.

 **[00:00]**

 **[Deactivating Cervical Armor]**

* * *

 **AND CUT! 3.3K words, man! Anyway, the finale will very likely be in the next chapter. That'll be all, folks! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


	17. Omake

**Just my first omake attempt. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _ **Omake: Nanomachines, Son!**_

* * *

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" Xero roared in anger to the Silver Gospel.

It suddenly replied in a deep _male_ voice as it regenerated its severed arms with a black substance of sorts, **"Nanomachines, son! They harden in response to physical trauma!"** it dramatically gestured on itself as said nanomachines became more prominent in its frame. **"You can't hurt me, Jack!"**

…

"What. The. Fuck?" he blankly stared. "Who in the bloody hell's Jack, anyway? Oh well." He readied Ripper and rushed to attack it again.

 _Whirrr-Kzzzzt!_

"What the!" he was shocked as it didn't cut through the arm this time. He swore the IS had a phantom of a smirk in its face before it spoke, **"What did I just say?"**

He felt it grab him, and he realized that he got flung in the air, with him screaming as it happened.

* * *

 **Okay, that probably sucked. Just made this out of the blue.**


	18. S1 Finale

**Hey guys, the final chapter is here! Now, I was thinking of creating a sequel, but it will only happen in a few months at least. School occupies me so much that I barely have time writing. Anyway, enjoy!**

 _ **As I said before, I don't own Xionic Madness and Infinite Stratos.**_

* * *

 _ **Season 1 Finale**_

* * *

 _Once upon a time, in a snowy evening somewhere in England, a young babe was left by his parents in an orphanage._

 _Taken care of by the old lady that owned the place, this child became a boy. However, he was different from the other children he grew up with._

 _A brilliant yet manipulative boy he is, no one suspected him of all the strange happenings around the orphanage that he committed either out of sheer boredom or childish curiosity, as they only saw him as nothing but a shy introvert that liked reading books._

 _However, this peculiarity of his garnered the attention of a small clan of assassins, as they were looking for children like him as new additions to their clan._

 _And so, one night, when everyone are deep asleep, they took him away._

 _Any child who would be in his shoes will certainly be afraid, but instead of fear, he felt confused. But that confusion was quelled when he learned more about the clan, and of what they do for a living._

 _Knowing he got no options at all, he reluctantly joined._

 _From then on, he trained in the arts of espionage and assassination, albeit a bit unwilling at first._

 _But over time, he made actual friends and felt joy for the first time in so many years as he spent time with his newfound brothers and sisters-in arms._

 _And over time, he began to like what he is doing, and he started to look forward in the missions he will take once he finally become a full-fledged killer._

 _Many years have passed, and the boy, now a young man, began his career as an assassin._

 _Being one of the best, he quickly made himself known in the criminal underworld, respected and feared by many who knew him._

 _Yet despite all that, the young man remained a humble man and a kind person to those he loved._

 _A year has passed since he first spilled blood however, he began to question what will become of him in the future, and he began to ask himself what a normal life could be._

 _And it was at that time he decided to live amongst the common folk as he wanted to experience a normal life._

 _With the clan elders' permission, he settled down in the capital of his homeland, though as a part of a long-term undercover mission that was given to him by the elders._

 _Everything seemed fine to him, until some months later, tragedy struck…_

 _Upon receiving news that the clan was butchered by unknown assailants, hate overtook him._

 _He cared less for the older members of the clan, but he loved his younger comrades so much that they're his siblings in everything but blood._

 _With everyone he held dear taken away from him, he lost his sense of morality and become a cold-blooded killer, having no qualms in taking the lives of innocents._

 _And when he found the ones responsible for the clan's destruction, he tormented them for weeks until their minds broke before finally killing them._

 _Despite the perpetrators killed by his own hand, all he felt was emptiness. He'd lost everything and killing is the only thing he was best at._

 _And so, with his twisted mind, he decided to make people feel his suffering._

 _He started wars and sown anarchy all over the world as he became an agent of chaos, the Horseman of War personified._

 _In just one year, the world fell to ruin as cities burned down in flames and the lands were drenched with blood._

 _Nations fell and its people were fractured, with only a small handful of nations still having a semblance of order._

 _No one was able to stop him in his untold reign of terror, until one day, he was caught in a trap._

 _Despite being outnumbered and the odds stacked against him, he drew his sword in defiance and fought. Battered and defeated, he was captured by an organization that went against everything he'd done._

 _They took his identity away from him and changed his body into a twisted amalgamation of steel and flesh, turning him into an even more deadly weapon than he ever was._

 _And after they sealed away his memories, they decided that it's time for him to awaken._

 _And then he woke with a gasp._

* * *

"He's still not awake?" Chifuyu asked the doctor as they walked down the hospital's hallways. Though she's not the only visitor, as Madoka was surprisingly with her.

The doctor replied, "No luck so far, but he might in a few days, maybe weeks. Thanks to his augmentations and to the contributions made by Ms. Shinonono, his recovery was proceeding more smoothly than we initially expected."

What exactly happened for such a situation to become possible, anyway? Let's make a recap.

To begin with, our protagonist's fight against Silver Gospel is a victory, though it is a pyrrhic one as Xero didn't exactly made it out unscathed.

And since his injuries were severe, he had to get rushed to the hospital. But since he is a cyborg, the doctors were pretty much stumped on what to do. Thankfully though, Tabane helped out in saving his life, as she saw him _"more interesting than how how Ikkun could pilot an IS"_.

And after she somehow received news about what happened to him, Madoka rushed to the hospital he was admitted in, not even bothering to put up a disguise. Of course, it became inevitable that the Orimura siblings would meet up, but she didn't even bother talking to them until the doctors stabilized him from his critical condition.

All she cared for was the well-being of her boyfriend, nothing more and nothing less.

It was only after he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit that they had a heart-to-heart talk, albeit one that involved cursing, yelling, energy weapons fire, a couple explosions, and an abandoned warehouse burning down to the ground.

Nevertheless, it ended up in tears and hugs, with each of them having their weight lifted off their shoulders as they finally found closure **(Chifuyu and Madoka, in particular)**.

This might go on as a good news, but like every good news, there's always bad news accompanying them.

Xero is in a coma, and a few months have already passed since the doctors confirmed it.

Madoka would visit him everyday, hoping that he'd wake up soon as she missed him a lot. Chifuyu would come along too sometimes, but for less personal reasons.

Now back to present, the three are now by the door that leads to the room where Xero was supposedly staying in. Upon opening the door…

They saw Xero, fully awake, removing the needles and other things stuck all over his body.

Without hesitation, Madoka bolted forward and crashed to the rather surprised man, engulfing him with her embrace.

"I missed you a lot." She whispered. He gently pried her arms off him and gave a hollow chuckle, "I'm here now, aren't I?" before he coughed a bit. "Damn, I'm thirsty. Do you have water?" he rasped. The doctor quickly went out and came back not too soon with a couple bottles of water. The cyborg gladly took them and greedily drank the life-giving liquids, quenching his thirst and moistening his parched throat.

One minute later and no one had spoken a word, the doctor took the silence as his cue. "Um... Anyway, good evening Mr. Strasbourg. How are you feeling today?"

"Like shit." He snidely said, which was followed by, "Just kidding. I'm quite fine. A bit vulnerable, but fine nonetheless."

The doctor hummed in approval, "That's good. We might discharge you tomorrow at best if we can confirm that there's no more anomalies in your, um… body."

Xero narrowed his eyes when he caught on the doctor's hesitation and turned to Chifuyu. "He knows of my augmentations, didn't he?" he accused, which she replied "Yes he did, along with a couple nurses, a small team of surgeons and Tabane, but no one else."

She then assured him. "Don't worry about secrecy though, they won't talk because they're on the Sarashiki family's payroll. And besides, you were moved here in a secluded retreat home. No one can find us here or sneak away without getting caught by the patrolling guards and the security cameras scattered all over the place. You'll be fine."

She then continued, "You really gave us a scare, you know? You suffered a lot of injuries from your fight. Second to third-degree burns in your hands and neck and a fist-sized stab wound on your stomach. You've also lost a lot of blood, and the medics were so baffled as to how you're still alive."

"Your body rejected any transfusions, even plasma. We found out that the nanomachines in your blood is rejecting anything that doesn't match your DNA, as Tabane found out that the nanomachines were doing the rejection. But before that, we initially thought it had something to do with your genes."

He stiffened when she mentioned "genes", and Madoka noticed it. She then realized that he knew about it and kept it a secret for some reason. The younger Orimura could only watch in worry for her boyfriend as he tightened his grip to the bedsheets he sat on.

She continued, "We didn't mean to be invasive, but the doctors said they found some abnormal genes in your DNA when they've scanned it. It's surely not human as its composition is different from that of a normal DNA, but your body somewhat assimilated it instead. They took some to study it and- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Chifuyu's cries of protest went unanswered as Xero quickly got up and pinned the doctor to the wall. "Where. Are. The. Samples." He snarled as the doctor tried to keep a calm demeanor, only to fail when the blue-haired man began to lift him by his collar.

They wanted to stop him, to pry him off the doctor and give him a good dose of sedatives to calm him down at least, but it seemed to them that Xero didn't want anyone knowing of his genetic anomaly for a reason only he knows. And so, the sisters just stood aside, though ready to restrain him if he went too far.

"Where are they?!"

Xero knew that the genes they found in his body are XV's, but it's currently inert and was the source of his special ability. However, if they tampered with it and made a mistake…

XV will return to wreak havoc on the world.

The doctor wheezed out, "B-basement… I-in the lab on t-the basement…" before Xero let him go and stormed out of the room, with the two sisters trailing after him.

The only question that lingered in their minds were, _"What just happened?"_

* * *

 _ **Later, on the basement…**_

"Hey! You're not supposed to be-ack!" one of the researchers present was roughly shoved aside by a furious Xero as he made his way to the small laboratory on the retreat home's basement. He was more worried than pissed though, as the probability of XV coming back was there.

He looked around and took everything that had anything about him. He scoured every cabinet and equipment with the aid of his cybernetic eyes, and not one corner was spared from his thorough search.

And not one person in the area dared to stop him.

Compiling at least 3 test tubes and 7 slides that had a trace of his DNA, he went to an incinerator present in the lab and threw them there. Pressing a button, he watched in morbid fascination as the machine did its magic and burned the samples until there's nothing left.

"Why the hell did you do that? Did you know what you just did?!" one of the researchers, a skinny man with graying unkempt hair wearing wound wire-rimmed glasses, screeched as he pulled his hair out in frustration. "Argghhh, damn it! All those potential genetic advancements in our hand, AND YOU JUST BURNED THEM TO ASHES!"

He turned to the man and gave him the coldest glare one could give. "And if it weren't for me, you would've released a bio-weapon and have us all killed." He icily shot back, killing intent aimed at full force to the fool.

The poor man couldn't even put up a semblance of resistance as he fell down in a heap, his body occasionally twitching and his face frozen in abject terror as he saw himself getting killed in more ways than one.

Done with his objectives, he left the room only to come across Chifuyu and Madoka. The older sister took a second to catch her breath before she questioned him, "What did you just do?"

"Got rid of a potential biohazard for you. Your welcome, by the way." She wasn't convinced by this though. "What do you mean biohazard? Are you saying you had a potentially dangerous gene that's assimilated in your body?"

"Yes, but it's inert and beneficial to me, but that'll be all I'm telling you." He was about to walk when Chifuyu blocked his way with her arm. "You're not getting away until you give us the answers, young man." He scoffed and glared at her.

"Don't test my patience, Orimura. I was in a good mood until I found out you're taking samples from me without my permission."

The standoff lasted for ten seconds and she didn't budge, he finally lost his patience and roughly shoved her aside, leaving the two to their thoughts.

"Xero, just what happened to you?" Madoka whispered in concern as she went after him.

Whether he liked it or not, she's going to find out what's going on.

* * *

 _ **With Xero…**_

He took a deep breath as he paced back and forth around the room as he tried to pull himself together in his mental struggle.

Checking his Neural Computer, he found out that the nanites all over his body were temporarily shut down through remote hacking some months ago.

 _All of them._

And based on what Chifuyu said earlier, it was very likely that Tabane deactivated them in order for the blood transfusion to work.

He also realized that he acted brashly in front of Madoka and cursed himself for that. "Fucking hell! I had to be such a dick!"

His thoughts were however interrupted when he saw his girlfriend entered the room with a serious expression.

"What's with that stunt you just pulled?" she demanded. He was about to say it was nothing but she interrupted him. "And don't give me bullshit excuses! Something happened to you, but you don't want to get anyone else involved! How are we gonna make things work out if you couldn't even trust us? To trust me?"

Tears began to pool from her eyes. "Why do you keep on fighting on your own?"

Seeing her state made his heart wrench in untold pain. He hated it so much to see her like that, especially when it's the first time he saw her cry like that.

And so, he tenderly wiped her tears and cupped her face. "I'm sorry." He paused, then continued. "I've hidden a lot of things to you because I was afraid that you'd push me away. But, I can't keep on doing this forever."

He sighed. He's about to go beyond the point of no return, but he didn't care. It's time for him to come clean.

"Now let me tell you a story, of a young child that was left in an orphanage in Liverpool."

* * *

 _ **A week later, somewhere in Europe…**_

"Alright, I got some guys that notified me of some abandoned structures that suddenly had activities this past month. I had all of them observed for 24 hours, and lo and behold, 1 out of the 4 are actually occupied by Phantom Task. Normally no one would mess with them as they had IS units, but I actually had plans- legal ones, mind you- on one of the buildings they've set up shop on. So I thought, why not tip you about 'em bitches and let you clear the areas? It's a win-win situation, you know."

"What's their location?"

"Uhhh… the one by the end of the avenue. It's concealed by trees, hard to miss it."

"Thanks, Oculus."

"No worries. Just give me a call when you need it. Congratulations on your recovery, though." Xero hung up.

One week ago, just shortly after he woke up, he now remembered everything. It happened when Tabane deactivated all of the nanomachines in his body, which included the ones in his brain that suppressed his memories.

And when Madoka confronted him, he told her his whole life story. His childhood, the clan, his assassin career, the wars he started, his time with Bolverk Squad, he didn't left out a single detail as he recounted everything until his untimely death fighting alongside his apprentice.

She didn't believe him at first, but he showed her the combat footages he had compiled. Suffice to say that she was shocked was an understatement.

He expected that she'd hate him, to scream obscenities at him and call him a mass murderer, but he turned out to be wrong when she simply said, "We're both killers, you dummy. Besides, you're not the Horseman of War anymore. You're Xero, the man I fell in love with."

And boy, he really kissed her for that. And the look on her face after it happened! She couldn't get over it and won't stop blushing for days.

He smiled and shook his head. He's got a mission to do.

Activating his Cervical Armor, he immediately flew towards his designated targets, Active Camouflage hiding him from sight. Looking at the interface linked to a hacked satellite, it will take him less than 10 minutes to arrive to his destination.

The Cervical Armor was heavily damaged after the fight with Silver Gospel, but Tabane was more than happy to repair it for him, but in the condition that she could analyze some of his weapons.

As he looked around him, he remembered that he'd been in this part of the city before, some time after he started WW3. The Russians and NATO forces clashed here for months on a stalemate until the Russians bombed the place down with napalm.

In the last life, he made his legend as the Blade of Anarchy. But now, he'll make a new legend. Not one of death and destruction, but of an unsung hero.

In this life, he'll make his legend, as the Blue Lightning.

* * *

 _ **The End.**_

* * *

 **DAAAAAAAMN, I'm finally done! As much as I wanted to continue this, I have to finish this. Don't worry though, I'm gonna create a sequel. That is, if you want to.**

 **But for now, I'll work on Ouroboros. My update speed slowed down from every few days, to every week, to 2 weeks, until every month. I've gotten slow, so I'm just gonna focus on one fic at a time for now.**

 **That'll be all folks, and thank you for reading Blue Lightning! JaphetSkie, signing out.**


End file.
